TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Coffee is one of the leading commodity of national plantations which widely traded in the world. Coffee is the fourth foreign exchange earner after oil palm, rubber and cocoa. However, productivity has not been the best despite having great potential land reached 1.2 million hectares. Compared to Vietnam, Indonesia produces less coffee by more than 50 percent.

"Indonesia is lagged from Vietnam in terms of coffee production productivity due to technical problems. The coffee plantations in Indonesia are still traditional," said Secretary of Directorate General of Plantation of Agriculture Ministry Irmijati Rachmi Nurbahar on Tuesday, July 21.

Meanwhile, she said, Vietnam has been implementing Good AgriculturePractice (GAP) or Good Plantation Practice. Where, the selection mechanism has been applied starting from the superior and certifiedseed, good irrigation, optimal fertilizer and appropriate standards.

Application of GAP was making Vietnam capable of producing abundantcoffee per hectare to 2.2 tons per hectare, even reaching four tons per hectare. Meanwhile Indonesia has not reached one ton per hectare.

Data from Agriculture Minister mentioned that in 2014 Vietnam was able to contribute 1.32 million tons of coffee products to the international market. Meanwhile, Indonesia was only able to produce 0.69 million tons for the global market. However, Indonesia was still superior in terms of taste and aroma.

"We are making improvement to apply GAP," she said.

ANTARA