So far, at best, tea farmers have farms. Meanwhile, tea factories are mostly owned by investors, because they require a lot of investment. However, after all this time, finally there is also a tea factory that is owned by tea farmers. This factory is called the Smallholders Tea Factory “Iroet” which is located in Cisaat, Sukatani Village, Cilawu District, Garut, West Java. The existence of this factory is expected to reduce the dependence of farmers on tea management of the private sector. Apart from that, of course, it can boost farmers’ income, especially from the added value of the tea products produced.
“For the first time in Indonesia, tea farmers own and manage a tea processing factory. Iroet People’s Tea is the first of 20 factories to be built in West Java and Central Java as the largest tea producing regions in Indonesia,” said Deputy Minister of Trade Bayu Krisnamurthi, in a release issued Thursday (17/4).
Bayu said, currently, most tea farmers are still producers of raw materials and do not have dry tea processing units. About 46% of the tea plantation area is owned by smallholders. On the other side, tea is one of the leading commodities for the Indonesian agricultural sector. In 2009, the Indonesian Tea Association noted that tea contributed US$ 110 million to the country’s income. Smallholders Tea Factory “Iroet” is owned by the Multipurpose cooperative (KSU) Putera Mekar. KSU Putera Mekar is a cooperative whose members are tea farmers in the Garut area, West Java. The existence of this factory is to empower, prosper, and is expected to increase access to information and network of tea farmers.
Currently, there are 454 members of KSU Putera Mekar. The total area of the smallholders tea plantations owned by KSU is 406.51 hectares (ha). The tea factory has a production capacity of 8.5 tons of tea shoots per day from tea farmers who are also members of the cooperative.
In addition, the factory can produce as much as 50 tonnes of dry tea per month. Apart from producing it themselves, KSU Putera Mekar also trades 50 tonnes of dry tea per month. In total, KSU Putera Mekar manages 100 tons of dry tea per month or 1.2 tons of dry tea per year which is equivalent to US$ 1.62 million.
Source: https://amp.kontan.co.id/news/putera-mekar-miliki-pabrik-teh
