Barokah Kerinci Wet-Hulled Farmgate Initiative

This coffee contributes to a Farmgate Initiative project. Learn more. 

The 320 members of the Koerintji Barokah Bersama Cooperative live and farm on a plateau that sits at the foot of Mount Kerinci on the island of Sumatra. Mount Kerinci is one of the many volcanoes in the Pacific Ring of Fire, a 40,000-kilometer horseshoe-shaped series of 452 volcanoes that are part of an almost constant dance of eruptions and plate movements. Mount Kerinci’s historic eruptions have assured that the surrounding area is lush and verdant with a deep supply of fertile volcanic soil.

The cooperative is managed by Triyono, who leads members in processing and roasting their own coffees. They have a fully outfitted roasting facility, including a cupping lab, next to the dry mill. This is especially impressive considering the cooperative was founded in mid-2017!

Almost all farms on Sumatra are small. On average, farms are between 0.5 to 2.5 hectares. Coffee is usually the primary cash crop for farmers, but most also intercrop their trees alongside vegetables, potatoes and fruit. This intercropped produce will make up a substantial part of the family’s diet for the year. 

In addition to growing coffee as a cash crop, many smallholder farmers also work as hired laborers at nearby tea plantations. Like coffee, tea is a huge cash crop in the area. The bigger tea plantations are often near coffee farms. When the harvest is finished, coffee farmers will go there and pick leaves under contracted labor. 

There are more and more initiatives by farmers on Sumatra to organize themselves into cooperatives. In the past, farmers did not have much leverage to get better prices for their cherry or parchment. In cooperatives, they can share resources, organize training and negotiate better prices.

During the harvest season, coffee is handpicked. Usually, most labor is supplied by the immediate family. 

After picking, the coffee will be delivered to a UPH collection center. A UPH is a collection center where coffee cherries are purchased by the cooperative and where the coffee is processed before moving it to the central mill. Essentially, a UPH functions as a small washing station. Triyono oversees the activities on and around nine UPH stations owned by the cooperative.

To streamline the operation, there is an agriculturalist providing technical assistance to make sure the same, standard procedures are used to process cherry at each of the different stations. Each UPH is located in a different area and receives cherries from different farmer groups. 

Indonesia is known for its unique ‘Wet Hulled’ Process (Giling Basah). Tryiono and his team are also trying to add to this tradition by diversifying the coop's processing methods. Our offer list usually featured Fully washed, Honey and Natural lots (among others) from the cooperative.

Members of the coop have a fixed buyer for their cherries, and at the end of the year, the coop invests its profits in either infrastructure to increase quality, or shares them as quality premiums with the member producers. 

Farmers also receive technical support and seedlings for shade trees to plant on and around their farms. To join the coop, a producer pays a one-time membership fee of around 400 dollars (5 million rupiahs). 

Indonesia is perhaps best known for its unique wet hulling process (giling basah). Though its exact origins are unclear, wet hulling most likely originated in Aceh during the late 1970s.

Wet hulling’s popularity can be attributed to producers’ need for prompt payments. It was also adopted specifically by many producers who lacked the drying infrastructure that was needed to shelter drying parchment from the high humidity and inconsistent rainfall typical in Sumatra. At higher elevations with constant humidity and unpredictable rainfall, drying can prove to be slow, risky and difficult.

The basic process for wet hulling is as follows: Cherry is harvested and pulped at or near the farm on small hand-cranked or motorized pulpers. The coffee is fermented overnight in small tanks, buckets, or bags and washed with clean water the following morning. Parchment is sundried for between half a day and two days, depending on the weather. This first drying is for skin drying, which eases the removal of parchment.

At this juncture, the moisture content is between 30 and 40%. Parchment is delivered to a processor (often by the village collector) for wet hulling. A wet hulling machine is larger, requires more power and runs at a faster speed than a traditional dry huller. After the hulling, the coffee seed is whitish and pliable and is called labu. It is laid out to dry on tarps or patios, where it reduces in size and reaches 14 to 15% moisture content. This stage is known as asalan and is unsorted and with defects.  Much of the internal commercial trade is for asalan.  Exporters, most of whom are based in Medan, will finish the drying down to 12 to 13% moisture content and will sort and prepare coffee for shipment.

Our premium and specialty wet-hulled coffees are produced in direct collaboration with village collectors and processors so that the drying, storage and lot integrity remain in place from the farmer all the way to you. In this way, we can export cleaner, more stable and more traceable regional lots.

Sucafina has established offices and quality labs in Indonesia that are staffed by an experienced team who manage our activities across this vast and diverse island nation. We partner with farmers, cooperatives, collectors, mills, and exporters from many producing islands including Sulawesi, Flores, Bali, Java and Sumatra. We work to identify the best producers across Indonesia and support their ability to improve quality, increase capacity and access the market.

We regularly travel to visit partner producers. Visits are essential to maintaining and strengthening the relationships that are integral to our communal success. Visits help us gather accurate, up to date information on harvest and post-harvest timing and practices. We also use this time with producers to help identify challenges they are facing and determine where we can help them work towards sustainable, affordable solutions. Our local team oversees logistics to ensure that coffee moves safely and efficiently from farm to mill to port, and on to you. With comprehensive quality control at multiple stages of the supply chain, we ensure the integrity of each shipment and work continuously on quality improvement.

Indonesia has an impressive diversity of coffees to offer and the industry continues to evolve and change. Whether you’re looking for consistent deliveries of the classic wet-hulled profile from North Sumatra or Aceh, the clean washed coffees from Flores or Sulawesi, or experimental micro-lots from the new generation of producers emerging around the archipelago, the team at Sucafina Indonesia is ready to help.