Minister of Investment/Head of the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) Bahlil Lahadalia visited the Papuan Coffee booth at the International Coffee Exhibition Melbourne, Australia, on Sunday, May 12, 2024. The visit was held on the sidelines of his agenda while in Melbourne as a keynote speaker at the Indonesia Australia Business Summit (IABS) 2024.

Bahlil, who attended high school and college in Papua, was impressed with the Papuan Coffee booth initiated by a number of coffee farmers from Baliem, Wamena, Papua.

"I am proud of Papua Coffee. Please see me later, when you return to Jakarta,” Bahlil told the Papuan coffee farmers who participated in the exhibition.

Besides Papuan coffee, a number of Indonesian coffees were promoted in the exhibition.

MICE or Melbourne International Coffee Expo is the largest annual coffee exhibition in the Asia-Pacific region attended by coffee industry players and their communities. This year, MICE was attended by more than 15,000 baristas or professionals in the coffee industry to pit their skills in processing coffee.

Coffee downstreaming

Bahlil cited that there are currently three Papuan coffee brands that have gone global, namely Baliem Valley Wamena Coffee, Bintang Coffee, and Amungme Coffee.

The name Wamena Coffee is also based on the name of the place of production, which is in Wamena regency. This coffee is cultivated in the Baliem Valley, which has an altitude of 1,200-1,600 meters above sea level. In addition, there is Pegunungan Bintang Coffee, an Arabica type grown in the Bintang Mountains. This coffee is organically grown and the beans are harvested manually.

The last is Amungme Coffee, which is named after the tribe that manages it, the Amungme Tribe. Amungme Coffee is cultivated on the slopes of Mount Jayawijaya, which has an altitude above 1,200-2,000m above sea level.

Bahlil said that the challenge for national coffee is how to downstream coffee so that this commodity can provide added value for coffee farmers. "The challenge is how to downstream coffee. So that the added value can be enjoyed domestically by the country and farmers," said Bahlil.