RI predicts 25% drop in coffee production due to weather

National News.
Source: thejakartapost

The Agriculture Ministry is projecting up to a 25 percent drop in Indonesia's coffee production this year due to unpredictable weather.

“Yes, we're predicting that it will drop, but it's only a prediction; it can change. Hopefully we'll be able to boost production again,” the ministry's director for spice plants, Azwar A. B., said Monday.

In 2010, Indonesia produced 709,000 tons of coffee. This year, the figure is predicted to drop to 567,200 tons.

Azwar said the drop was also attributable to the traditional management of plantations, citing that coffee shrubs in plantations were on average 15 years old, resulting in low coffee production.

Replanting, meanwhile, is an issue because of the high cost, which can reach between Rp 7 million (US$812) and Rp 30 million per hectare, he said, as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.