Bengkulu Coffee: Bad Bean Prices This Season, Want Own Products

dayat

yeah that makes sense, I think I understand your point better now. I’m starting to see that improving quality and consistency should come first before thinking about roasting.

mine is mostly robusta, so I know it might be harder to reach specialty level, but I’m interested in trying to improve the process step by step.

if I can get the quality up, I’d rather build a relationship with small roasters directly like you mentioned, instead of relying only on collectors. I guess that’s the long term goal for me.

delta76

dayat it is harder to reach specialty status with robusta but have been movements with FineRo initiative in recent years. Some roasters will still buy Robusta for blending even if it is not specialty. You can try reach out to some roasters and offer samples. If it is good they will probably still buy.

Farmers in some countries formed collective group so they have more leverage in bargaining price. Just saying, could be difficult to do with your neighbors. Price will still be under supply demand influence so expect it to be lower this year.

dayat

delta76

Yeah that makes a lot of sense, especially about selling to roasters for blending first. That feels more realistic for me right now instead of aiming straight for specialty.

About sending samples, I’m actually interested in trying that. Do you have any suggestion on how to find roasters who are open to testing samples? And what kind of quantity they usually expect for a first contact?

Thanks again for the advice, really helps me think practically about the next small steps. 👍

delta76

dayat look up roasters in cities near you and send them messages. I would say sample bags of 1kg should work quite well if they want to cup your coffee. So it’s an small investment but if you want better outreach.

dayat

delta76

Thanks for the suggestion 👍

Sending 1kg sample bags to local roasters sounds like a smart move — small investment but much better chance they’ll actually try and cup the coffee.

I’m still in the middle of drying this current batch (harvested last Saturday), so once it’s fully dry and hulled I’ll have a clearer idea of the quality and can start preparing those samples.

Really appreciate the practical advice, man. Helps a lot.

dayat

Day 4 Drying Progress – First Update from the Field

Hey guys,

Here’s a fresh look at what’s happening right now on my small farm in Bengkulu.

The coffee cherries were harvested on Saturday, and this is how they look after almost 4 full days drying on the red tarp. You can clearly see the outer shells starting to turn that brown-black color as the moisture comes out.

It’s still early days, but the beans are slowly shrinking and changing. Weather has been tricky — strong sun mixed with sudden clouds, so I’m constantly turning them every couple of hours and watching the sky like a hawk.

This batch should end up around 300–350 kg of green beans once it’s fully dry (fingers crossed the rain stays away).

Feels good to finally share some real on-the-ground progress instead of just talking about prices and middlemen.

What do you think ?

Adrianmsmith

Do you roast at all at the moment it is that a future venture

If you do and want opinions maybe some of us would try a kg?

You would need to get a quote to send to us .

Maybe the rules are ok (i don’t know) if you sell to us “evaluation” or “sample” products as opposed to “roasted retail coffee beans”

dayat

Adrianmsmith

At the moment I only focus on the farming and post-harvest side. I still have almost zero experience in roasting itself.

To be honest, I think it’s probably better for experienced roasters or coffee people to roast the green beans themselves anyway, since everyone seems to have their own roasting style and preference.

Right now I’m more interested in learning how to produce cleaner and more consistent green beans first before thinking about roasting commercially.

Adrianmsmith

Adrianmsmith
@SKevo @Patrick
If you want to delete my post now the picture situation is understood please feel free. Ade. I’m past the edit deadline!!

Rob1

You’re going to have a hard time marketing robusta to people who drink speciality coffee. You’re looking at a significant investment in equipment to roast the beans. Not to mention the time to learn to use the equipment.

You’ll need to get the coffee graded, and after that you may want to try to start small, sell the bulk of your harvest at market as you do now and roast small batches yourself. I imagine it is sold as commodity grade coffee and used to manufacture instant coffee and possibly caffeine powder. This may also be something you could look into. Freeze drying or caffeine extraction equipment could also be used with harvests from other local farms.

Freeze drying and caffeine extraction have a couple of advantages. You can avoid problems with the need to ship roasted coffee immediately after roasting for a start. There is also no need to have the coffee graded. There’s probably a much larger market for good instant coffee compared to speciality coffee - especially if you are trying to sell speciality robusta.

delta76

Rob1 The OP is in Indonesia so shipping oversea to UK or Europe in generally is not very viable, especially roasted. Start roasting coffee without a demand is also unwise.
Instant coffee is a very competitive market when you have big brands dominating supermarkets. You will have hard time to even get your product to the shelf let alone getting customers to buy it. No supermarket will sign a contract with an unknown brand, and the initial investment is huge also.
The most viable option for OT is to sell his coffee to roasters for a better price than through merchants acting as middleman. Even then it could be not easy though

dayat

Rob1

Yes, I understand robusta is a difficult market especially in speciality coffee circles, and honestly I’m still learning about all of this step by step.

Right now I’m not aiming to build a large roasting business or industrial production. Equipment like freeze drying or caffeine extraction is still far beyond my scale at the moment.

For now my main goal is much simpler: improving harvesting and post-harvest practices little by little, learning about quality, and seeing whether there is any possibility to move away from selling only as bulk commodity coffee in the future.

Most farmers here still sell everything through collectors, so even learning directly from coffee people like this forum is already something valuable for me.

Rob1

A large fluid bed air roaster is what you’d use for instant/caffeine extraction.

You may also be able to manufacture green coffee supplements.

You can use fluid bed or drum roasters for speciality coffee. You probably want something high high automation such as a coffee tech solar to help get up and running quickly.

Rob1

delta76

Didn’t say it would be a good idea to ship fresh roasted coffee overseas. You’re completely wrong about supermarkets not signing contracts with unknown brands. They will partner with anybody who can deliver the volumes they want, at the right price, quality, and standards. They take samples and test them in a small number of stores from small producers without the proven sales to back the product up. What they really need to see is consistency and reliability (so good logistics will need to be in place). If you can pitch to them with a proven track record of sales that’s ideal, but not completely required with something like coffee, which the supermarket buyer can taste and judge for themselves if it’s offering something different (and better) than other brands. As for them selling it, they will take care of positioning and promotion.

Is it easy? No. But far from impossible. A small batch instant coffee made on the producing farm would be pretty unique. Would it be consistent? Probably not. Is that a selling point? Maybe.

There are other options of course. Partnering with a roaster who needs robusta is possible. Concrete coffee use robusta in their blends. The only other option realistically is switching to arabica production….I imagine that is going to require significantly more investment than anything.

I was just floating different ideas for the OP to consider. Not suggesting any of it is ideal compared to what he’s doing now. If I were him, I’d keep selling to the middle men, consider trying to manufacture green coffee supplements to increase revenue as it means no roasting and therefore no emissions concerns with the surrounding area, and look for investment to switch to arabica crops but have no idea what that would entail. Could well be he would partner with a big roaster or importer who could invest in the farm to produce speciality grade arabica.

dayat

Sorry for the long delay on this thread. I was away from my phone for quite a while, but also waiting for the coffee to move into the next stage so I’d actually have something new to show instead of just words.

The cherries have finally finished drying, and now they’ve already gone through hulling. Here’s how the beans look at the moment after the dry parchment was removed.

Prices also moved a little better compared to before, though still far from ideal for many farmers here in Bengkulu.

Adrianmsmith

dayat
Why don’t green beens look green.

Why does the earth look flat 🤔🤭

What is my purpose in life and is the answer really 42.

LMSC

dayat As advised by others, you may consider reaching out to roasters, for examples, in the UK and offer samples. GL! 😊

dayat

@Rob1 @delta76

I think both of you make good points from different sides.

At my current stage, I agree with delta76 that jumping directly into roasting or instant coffee production would probably be too big and risky for me right now, especially with the investment and logistics involved.

For now, the more realistic path for me is learning how to produce cleaner and more consistent green beans first and hopefully finding ways to sell at a better value than only through middlemen.

But I also appreciate Rob1 mentioning different possibilities, because honestly before joining this forum I never even knew things like fine robusta, direct trade, or small specialty markets existed. Most farmers around me still mainly think only in terms of selling cherries or dry beans to collectors as fast as possible.

So at the moment I’m mostly trying to learn step by step and understand where coffee from farms like ours could realistically fit in the market.

dayat

LMSC
Thank you 😊

Actually, sending small samples of the green beans is something I’d really be interested in trying in the future. At least for now, I think it makes more sense for me to focus on raw dried/green coffee rather than roasted coffee since I still have very little experience in roasting itself.

It would honestly be my pleasure if people wanted to evaluate or experiment with beans from our farm. The only thing is shipping from Indonesia can be expensive, so most likely the shipping cost would need to be covered by the receiver.

But honestly, if one day any of you ever visit Indonesia — especially Bengkulu — you would be very welcome to come directly to the farm instead 😊

I may not have fancy facilities, but I’d do my best to make sure there’s a place to rest, eat, and experience how coffee is actually handled here from the farm side.

For now I’m still learning step by step about quality control, grading, and how exporting samples even works.

dfk41

Robusta is still a much needed part of the blended arabica process. Especially amongst Italian roasters. On the downside though, many of the Italian brands like Lavazza and Illy buy a lot of coffee! I would try and find a volume Italian firm. Can I ask what you reckon the weight of your entire crop would be?

dayat

dfk41
At the moment, roughly around ±800 kg for the whole crop, though it can change quite a bit depending on weather and harvest conditions each season.

Some years could be higher, especially if the flowering and drying season go well. Around here the weather really affects almost everything during harvest and post-harvest handling.

I’m still learning and trying to improve the picking and processing methods step by step too, so right now I’m more focused on consistency and quality improvement rather than trying to produce very large volume.

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