Tea Business Trailblazers Seek Ways to Prosperity

Many a hero was born out of chaos. Much the same is true in the tea business. As various issues blight the industry in West Java, tea business people, especially smallholders, are striving to find bright paths.

KOMPAS/RIZA FATHONI

A worker plucks tea on 27 June 2019 at the Pasir Canar tea plantation in Jayagiri, Sukanagara, Cianjur regency, West Java.

Tea is of huge significance in West Java. Tea plantations cover a total area of 84,630 hectares in the province, accounting for 77 percent of all tea estates in Indonesia. The plantations are controlled either by smallholders, by private companies or by state-owned enterprise PT Perkebunan Nusantara (PTPN) VIII.

PTPN VIII manages 19,342 ha of estates divided into 23 plantations in 6 cities and regencies. The leaves are processed in 23 factories. Most of PTPN VIII’s factories are dilapidated and in serious need of repair. One of them is the Malabar tea factory in Bandung regency.