Bali Product - Coffee Growing in Bali began in the 1750s with plantings of Arabica. These thrived for about 100 years, finally being destroyed, along with their Javanese neighbors, by leaf rust. Coffee production on a large scale did not resume until the introduction of strains of robusta in 1912. All eight districts in Bali produce some coffee, but Buleleng, Tabanan, and Bangli exceed all others by far. There are the data for the 1987 harvest.

KARUPATEN - Badung 168 - Bangli 841 - Butclcng 3.079 - Gianyar 91 - Jembrana 256 - Karangasem 4.3 - Klungkung 7 Total 5.370

About one-third of the coffee plantings in Bali are Arabica, two thirds robusta. The principal Arabica growing area is north of Kintamani. Some is grown in the mountainous area is north of Singaraja. And some is Arabica is grown south of Kintamani village but not much to the east or west. The main seeding nursery for Arabica the 10 hectare Kebun Induk Kopi Arabika is maintained at Kembangsari, toward the coast from Penulisan.

Coffee farmer traditionally work in groups called kelompok tani . The government assits them with technical guidance and distribution of high yielding materials, and credit for seedings, fertilizers, pesticides, tools, and upkeep coast for the first three years of replanting a crop. Each farmer is entitled to a Rp. 500.00 credit. Continuing research is being done both in Bali and at the Spice Research Institute, Balai Penelitian Perkebunan in Jember. East Java Development of disease resistant straits especially important Hemileca is by no means the only disease of coffee. The trees can be attacked by everything from mice to nematodes

There are two centers of production for robusta coffee. One is pupuan, somewhat off the beaten tourist path, between Antosari, where the road from Denpasar to Gilimanuk turns abruptly southward at Antosari toward the sea and Siririt, west of Singaraja. The other is at Banyuatis, even farther off the track, reached by trave1ing cast, starting at a junction just south of Siririt, the Siririt-Antosari road toward the Beratan caldera. The government maintains a seedling nursery at Banjar Sai, near Pupuan. And there is very large central coffee processing plant at Punungan, also near Pupuan. It is closed except during the harvest season.

The vast majority of Balinese coffee and Indonesia coffee in general is grown pit small farms of less than a hectare. Bali's farms Average About mo hectares, slightly Above the national average. Indonesian low, prohibits individuals from owning more thin nine hectares and farms -smaller than a half hectares are not profitable. The collection, processing and transportations of coffee beans to buyers, users and exporters varies considerably from place to all the biggest buyers and exporters have their head quarters officers there. But all coffee must be hauled by truck to West Bali to be shipped to Surabaya Java for export.

Small coffee farmers generally sell their production on site professional collectors, called tengkulak The farmer may sell his beam risk off the trees or he may borrow or a simple hulling machine and dry the mutts him selt-. In Pupuan farmets take their beans to the large moll fix processing. Collectors then take the beans to buyer who must process the green begins. At this stage the beans must be carefully sorted into the various standard grade- that have been established by the government, on the basis of the contents of adulterants such as twigs and stone and upon the percentage of broken. immature, or diseased beans. This sorting is always done by hand. The price that the broker pays the gatherers is a function f: the grade. These are usually cash transactions. 'The gatherers bring their beans to the broker's large ware house where the load is carefully and paid for on the spot. Some brokers have their own gatherers. There are many such companies in the Singaraja area, some of which also 40 in vanilla and cloves.

The lowest grades of robusta coffee are generally destined for domestic consumption. About 80 percent of Arabica and a good deal of the robusta is exported, that' part retained being of the lowest quality. There are nine exporters all in Singaraja area. There are some variation in their operation. Some just buy. Some of their coffee comes from middlemen, some from the farmers directly. Arabica can be profitably exported to the United States even in competition wit Brazilian coffee because the price is often lower. Bali coffee either Arabica or robusta has a taste that is different from the South American coffees and is often sold over seas under the name bali Coffee for the best flavour, the beans should be kept in storage for at least a year before roasting. All of the coffee is exported green. Roasting is done at the destination.

Indonesia is a member of ICO the London based International Coffee Organization, which is a trade organization for some 75 coffee producing nations. The Organization set export quotas, attempts to even out prices smooth political relations between producing and consuming countries, and to beet up coffee’s image in the consumer nations. The ICO also sets grading standards Indonesia is not famous for the quality of her coffee, and one contributing factors is confusion over garden, which vary from region to region. For domestic coffee, the most often used gardens are stand GB. The formed stand for Single Picked the letter for Gewone bereiding, meaning Ordanry Preparation is high quality GB contains almost no whole seeds or green seeds For exporting purpose quality is shown by a pair of numbers separated by a slash for example 9/12% meaning 9-2 percent of the coffee consists of interior beans.

Coffee for the domestic market in Bali varies considerably in quality. Except for those who most grind and package coffee for the high quality domestic market much of the coffee is GB robusta mixed with the lower grades of Arabica. In places like lombok and Madura individuals buy the green beans, roast what they need in a frying pan , and pound into a powder. by hand- But in Bali, almost of the col1ce sold to consumers has already been roasted and to a powder. This is called kopi bubuk,

A great deal of the kopi bubuk sold in Bali is adulterated with corn. The corn is boiled and roasted separately from the coffee. The corn is added to the coffee before grinding. A Typical small coffee roaster produces three grades of kopi bubuk, and Grade contains and grade A is pure coffee grade B contains about 50 percent by weight corn grade C contains about 70 percent corn. The coffee with and those without corn are visually identical. Other adulterant, such as chicory are never used.

One of the typical small coffee mills that I visited processes about 100-500 kilograms per day, depending upon demand. Green coffee beans, both SPand cm grades arc purchased in 100 kilo bags, called karung from brokers. -Me toaster is a hollow steel sphere about one meter in diameter. The coffee is placed in the toaster and it is scaled with a larges feel door- The roaster is suspended on an axis that passes through its center, terminating in a pulley. It is turned slowly over a large kerosene blast burner by A small electric motor. 'Three sides of the roaster arc encased in fire brick. After roasting the loose skins are separated from the beans with a blower. And then the beans arc ground with motor-driven ceramic disk grinders. Successful roasting is more of an art than science. The entire aroma and taste of the product depends upon this process, which must be very precisely timed

As with most coffee roasters in Bali, the factory I visited uses no arabica at all. Although it may be the world's favorite, customers in Bali arc not used to file taste And consider it kasar. "rough" or course and bitter. It sells only to merchants. But there arc larger coffee roaster and grinders both in Singaraja and Denpasar, who sell kopi bubuk both in bulk and scaled in one quarter one-half, and fine kilogram plastic package. This coffee is more expensive than the bulk variety. Whether or not it is Adulterated is hard to say. There is no reason to think that it is not. Coffee prices arc notoriously variable, but at the time of to writing the best grade of packaged kopi bubuk for about Rp 8,500 a kilogram in Denpasar. At the other end of the other end of the scale, grade C bulk coffee, about 70 percent corn, sold for Rp 3,000 a kilo. '

Since most of the major coffee growing areas are far from the beaten tourist trails, the chances of a visitor making a routine visit Arc rather small unless the there is extra time allowed for a side trip to be taken with a guide. However there are small numbers of both wild coffee trees and small coffee plantings along the main roads in many of the areas of Bali that are several hundred meters or more above sea level. You can see coffee trees between Mengwi and Bedugul, and both north and south of Tampak Siring on the road to Kintamani and there are number of coffee growers along the road as it descends from the summit of the mountains as one drives north from Bedugul to Singaraja.