From too wet to bone dry: Indonesian coffee crop faces El Nino jolt

El Nino’s scorching weather perils to further cause problems in coffee production in Indonesia, the world’s fourth-hugest producer of coffee, after extreme downpour brought down results to its lowest in more than a decade, driving global prices to all-time highs. Lower coffee production in Indonesia, which solely produces robusta beans could lead to extra benefits in prices, which have raised more than 40 per cent in 2023 and hit a record high in June.

Robusta beans have an intense and an extra bitter flavour compared to the arabica variety. “There are predictions of El Nino weather resulting to scorchiness towards the end of the year and early next year in Indonesia,” said Mr Carlos Mera, head of agri-commodities markets research at Rabobank. “If there is dryness, Indonesia’s coffee production could even get reduced further in coming years ” Indonesia’s weather agency (BMKG) said the El Nino weather phenomenon, which mainly brings very long scorching weather to the place, is already impacting more than two-thirds of the nation, involving Java and slices of Sumatra, two prominent coffee-producing regions.

The scorching heat that has been a part of weather along with extreme downpour across the country between 2020 and 2022 due to La Nina. There was also extreme downpour whilst the first five months of 2023. In 2023-2024, Indonesia’s coffee result is forecast at 9.7 million 60kg bags, down from 11.85 million bags a year ago and lowest since 2011-2012, revealed by the United States Department of Agriculture information.