Regional Details
The Sulawesi growing region has a complex geography that includes humid low-land rice paddies flanked by thousand-foot rock walls capped in perpetual mist. Coffee is grown in this geographic wonderland at elevations that reach 2000 MASL, considered to be some of the highest growing elevations in all of Indonesia. Much of the coffee is cultivated by members of the Torajan tribe, living in the central mountain region of the South Sulawesi province, who continue to maintain a traditional village lifestyle that includes houses that resemble boats.
Processing Details
Producers cultivate and harvest coffee on farms that average less than 3 acres and process coffee using their own micro-mills. At these mills, each producer carefully sorts their harvested cherries, depulps, ferments overnight, slightly washes, and lays wet parchment out on patios to shed water. Next the coffee takes a detour from the conventional path of processing in other origins, wherein, the wet coffee parchment is sold to the larger cooperative organization called Koperasi Puspeta Luwu. The cooperative moves the coffee to a larger centralized mill where the parchment is removed while the coffee seed still has a high moisture content. This wet-hulling process, called Giling Basah in the Indonesian language, leaves the coffee bean exposed while drying on patios to a moisture percentage acceptable for export and gives the bean its unique bluish color and the hallmark Indonesian profile.
Cooperative Details
Koperasi Puspeta Luwu has been partnering with local producer groups for nearly 40 years to overcome logistical challenges like rugged roads and lack of infrastructure. Koperasi Puspeta Luwu provides logistics and milling facilities, which improves traceability and quality control throughout the post harvest process, as well as, the ability to swiftly bring the coffee to the international market, ensuring greater producer earnings from direct trade relationships.
