Lampung Suffers 50 Percent Fall in Coffee Production

Bandarlampung, Lampung, July 10 (Antara) - Lampung`s coffee production fell 50 percent this year on extreme weather.

This year productivity averages only 700 kilogram to 1 million tons per hectare down from as high as 2 million tons last year, the Lampung branch of the Indonesian Association of Coffee Exporters (AEKI) said.

"The farmers are the hardest hit," a chairman of the Lampung branch of the AEKI Muchtar Lutfie said here on Thursday.

Muchtar said the crop was damaged and the fruits decayed because of too much rain.

Currently is harvest time in all production centers in Lampung such as in the regencies of Lampung Barat, Tanggamus, and Waykanan, but production is only 50 percent of normal production in harvest time, he said.

He said exports of coffee beans from Lampung have declined in the past two months as farmers` stocks are shrinking.

In addition, some exporters chose to keep their stock hoping that the price would increase, he said.

He said exporters and farmers are expected to release their stocks ahead of the Islamic holy day Idul Fitri.

He said he hoped the farmers continue to tend their coffee crop using proper fertilizer to increase production in the future.

Coffee exported from Lampung include coffee from Jambi, Bengkulu and South Sumatra.

He said the availability of fertilizer is often a problem for farmers in Lampung.

"Currently the prices of fertilizers are too expensive ," he said, adding the farmers need subsidized fertilizers.