Taiwanese buyer interested in Banaran coffee

The event is part of \`Tour de Coffee 2016\` organized by the Indonesian Economic and Trade Office (KDEI) in Taipei, Taiwan.
According to the Deputy of KDEI, Taipei Siswandi, Tour de Coffee 2016 was the second series ever which was attended by coffee importers, coffee shop owners, coffee roasters, and coffee enthusiasts or coffee writers from agricultural media in Taiwan.
They were invited to see directly the coffee making process, starting from the very first step of picking the beans in the plantations to processing in the factory.
`We want to introduce the quality of Indonesian coffee beans better, and attract buyers to purchase the coffee directly from producers and exporters,` Siswandi said in the sidelines of the visit.
He also added that the 2016 Tour de Coffee was started with a visit to the coffee plantation managed by PT Golden Malabar Indonesia in Pengalengan, West Java.
Next, they visited the coffee plantation of PT Perkebunan Nusantara (PTPN IX) in Bawen and Jambu, Semarang District, and the plantation of PT Taman Delta Indonesia in Gunung Kelir, Jambu, Semarang District.
Apart from visiting the coffee plantations, KDEI also coordinated the buyers to have one-on-one meetings with coffee exporters in West Java and Central Java.
The meeting is expected to shorten the usually long business chains, so that the export value of Indonesian coffee to Taiwan will continue to increase.
`Up to now, Taiwan buyers buy our coffee products through traders in Hongkong, Japan, Singapore or even the United States. By organizing this meeting, they can get a cheaper price by directly dealing with producers and exporters,` he explained.
Siswandi added that based on KDEI's trade records in Taipei, the export value of Indonesian coffee to Taiwan in the last 3 years, market demand has seen a significant rise.
In 2013, Indonesia exported 5.21 million tons of coffee to Taiwan with a total value of 16.81 million USD, rising to 6.73 million tons with a total value of 21.35 million USD in 2014. In 2016, it increased to 7.10 million tons with a total value of 23.53 million USD.
`This is in line with the increase in the number of coffee shops in Taiwan in the past 3 years, which has grown by 45-50 percent annually,` said Siswandi.
Impressed
One of the buyers from Shanghai Company, Miss Jeni Liu, said that she was very impressed with the visit. She said that it was her first time seeing a coffee plantation and a coffee factory in person.
She never thought that the coffee plantations in Indonesia would be so vast. `I am very impressed, it turns out the process of making coffee is very complex and long. The coffee plantations are also huge, I have some in Taiwan, but they're not this size,` said Miss Jeni when met at the PTPN 9 coffee plantation in Bawen.
Through a visit and a direct meeting with producers and coffee exporters in Indonesia, which was organized by KDEI, Taipei, Miss Jeni hopes that she can increase her coffee import volume from Indonesia.
The reason is that she can get coffee with high quality and a price that is much more affordable, compared to buying through a trader.
`Compared to other Asian countries, even Columbia and South America who are well-known for their coffee production, the coffee from Bandung and Banaran has good quality. Moreover, the distance from Indonesia to Taiwan is closer, so we can save more on the cost,` she added.
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