Producer Profile-TransFair USA
Organic Certification
Project Story
Fair Trade Impact

Project Story
In 1997, ForesTrade initiated the “Sustainable Sumatra Coffee Project”, a collaborative project in partnership with local coffee producers, the Gayo Organic Coffee Farmers Association (PPKGO) and CV. Ujang Jaya, a local processor/exporter. Working in close partnership with the PPKGO and CV. Ujang Jaya, ForesTrade serves as a processor, importer, pre-financer and logistics coordinator. We also provide the necessary technical assistance and training and support for implementing and monitoring organic and Fair Trade programs.

The PPKGO is located near Takengon in the Gayo Highlands region of Aceh Province, Sumatra, Indonesia. The cooperative has over 1,600 members of which 20% are women and spans 32 communities. PPKGO’s co-op’s membership is ethnically diverse comprised of: Gayo (50%), Javanese (30%), Acehnese (15%), Padang (3%) and Batak (2%). PPKGO was the first, and still the only, Fair Trade certified coffee cooperative in Indonesia.

Coop members live in an environmentally sensitive region in and around the buffer zone to Gunung Leuser National Park, an area that contains critical watersheds and sanctuaries for endangered species such as the Sumatran tiger. Producers are dedicated to producing high-quality 100% organic and shade grown coffee while ensuring their production practices conserve resources and preserve the biologically diverse ecosystem in which they live.

Peaceful Conflict Resolution
From the coop’s inception, the PPKGO has played a vital role in their communities promoting peaceful conflict resolution and economic stabilization in the face of strong political, economic, and ethnic tensions in Aceh Province. In fact, the PPKGO maintains a long standing history of community relations and promoting humanitarian activities between the ethnically diverse communities in the Takengon area. In the past, the organization has provided shelter for individuals directly affected by violence in the region.

Relief & Reconstruction Efforts in Aceh Responding to the Earthquake-Tsunami
More recently, the PPKGO was involved in mobilizing extensive relief efforts assisting people in Aceh most severely affected by the earthquake-tsunami that struck Southeast Asia on December 26, 2004.

To learn more about the relief efforts, click here.

Fair Trade Impact
Significant revenues earned from selling to the Fair Trade and organic markets has allowed PPKGO to contribute to a wide variety of programs, contributing to the advancement of PPKGO’s production, processing and quality, as well as local community development. These investments include:

Investment in local community development and local infrastructure
· Constructed potable water system benefiting more than 1,500 people in three communities.
· Assisted farmers in building and repairing 34 homes.
· Established a credit union to extend small loans to families in the cooperative.
· Provided supplemental financing for the construction of three local schools
· Constructed new roads and helped repair/upgrade existing ones.
· Refurbished area Mosques.
· Constructed soccer (football) fields for local communities.
· Provide ongoing support for local orphans and widows.
· 150 PPKGO members have participated in the Hajj, a life-long goal for Muslims.

Investment in coffee production, processing and quality improvements
· Rehabilitation of old farms and purchase of new ones.
· Development of community nurseries to provide improved and grafted coffee and shade
  tree seedlings.
· Initiation of a mechanical weed cutter program.
· Establishment of 2 cupping labs one at PPKGO’s headquarters in Takengon and the other
  at the export processing plant in Medan.
· Purchase of five wet mills.
· Purchase of moisture meters.
· Purchase of 25 vehicles for coffee transport in five communities.
· Promotion of income diversification projects for farmers to grow additional cash crops,
  such as vanilla, potatoes, and bananas.
· Maintenance of coffee seedling nurseries and distribution of seedlings to rehabilitate farms.