Poda, Indonesia

Description

Poda takes a different approach to Sumatran coffee, and provides a radically different model for supply stream relationships in the coffee industry. Poda sources coffee only from Dairi regency, just to the northwest of Lake Toba, specifically from the three districts of Sitinjo, Sumbul, and Sidikalang — the last of which is also the regency’s capital and is more often used as the name for the region. These three districts make up the highland homeland of the Pakpak people, where farmers grow coffee along with other cash crops on small farms covering less than one hectare, and a significant number as small as ¼ hectare.

Poda is led by Samuel Sihombing, a former pastor who has become a community leader in Sidikalang. Innitially arriving to the area to provide disaster relief, Samuel decided to stay and help the farmers bring their cash crops to market. Poda works with farmers to organize and manage groups, which provide a platform for agronomy and other training to improve coffee quality, including the women’s farmer groups that contributed to this coffee. A key part of this is improving financial management, so the groups are often built around a community savings and loan group, helping to give the farmers more financial autonomy and break cycles of debt owed to middlemen (often repaid in coffee, further reducing the farmer’s potential income). Poda buys directly from these groups to improve coffee quality and also to ensure that more of the coffee’s value is returned directly to the farmers — the farmers receive a higher price than the market rate for their coffee, and a part of this increased margin goes into the community savings and loan fund, providing low-cost financing for the members.

All sorting is done by women from the surrounding area, helping to provide high-quality employment opportunities in producing communities.

Future plans include an expansion of the women’s farmer group and savings and loan model, investment in a cupping lab at the Poda processing facility, and further training to the farmer groups to help them better understand how their work improves coffee quality and can help increase revenues for their community.