South Sumatra's coffee has made its way into the international market with its first commercial export to Malaysia and Australia, facilitated by the Financial Services Authority (OJK) through an industry ecosystem in collaboration with various stakeholders. The coffee export scheduled for 2025 includes 14 containers with a total capacity of 19.8 tons. Of these, 10 containers will be sent to Malaysia, and 4 containers will go to Australia, totaling 277.2 tons worth IDR 33.6 billion.
Arifin Susanto, the head of OJK for South Sumatra and Bangka Belitung, explained that the initial export involved 3 containers, or 59.4 tons, of green bean coffee from two coffee-producing regions in South Sumatra. This marks the beginning of a larger effort, with 8 more containers destined for Malaysia and 3 for Australia, valued at IDR 26.4 billion. The coffee shipped to Malaysia includes Robusta Grade 4 from Pagaralam and Arabica Grade 1 Specialty from Semendo, Muara Enim, while the export to Australia consists of Robusta Grade 1 from Pagaralam. Arifin also highlighted that one of the challenges in coffee exports from South Sumatra has been the unclear sales system, despite the region being the largest coffee producer in Indonesia. This has led to South Sumatra’s coffee not being widely recognized. However, the collaboration between OJK and the South Sumatra Provincial Government aims to create a proper sales ecosystem, boosting South Sumatra's coffee exports globally, with future expansion plans to Algeria.
