KONTAN.CO.ID - JAKARTA. Indonesian coffee businesspeople are now eyeing to increase its shares in the fast-growing coffee markets in China by exposing them to Indonesian coffees during a discussion with the Southern China-Indonesia Business Association (SCIBA) and Specialty Coffee Association of Indonesia (SCAI) in Guangzhou, China, recently.

“We wanted to gather them so that we can formulate our efforts to increase coffee exports to China,” said Ratu Silvy Gayatri, the Indonesian Console General in Guangzhou, in Beijing on Monday as reported by Antara.

She explained coffee exports to China from January to September reached US$34.1 million. Indonesia is the second-largest coffee-exporter to China after Vietnam, whose coffee export value reached $368.8 million in the same period.    

She expressed optimism that Indonesia would be able to increase its coffee market share to China because Indonesian coffee was competitive in the global market.

“Indonesia is one of the four largest coffee-exporting countries, together with Brazil, Vietnam and Cambodia,” he said, adding that the coffee market in China had grown about 15 percent annually, far higher than the global coffee consumption per capita increase, which was at 2.3 percent annually.

The Indonesian Embassy in China projected that in 2020, the coffee industry in China would reach US$442.87 billion.

“It is because of lifestyle changes among the young generation in China, who like coffee very much,” he said, adding that coffee plantations in Yunnan and Hainan could not meet the whole country’s demand. 

Editor: Rizki Caturini