Indonesia was the world's eighth-largest tea producer in 2023, primarily producing black tea with some production of green tea for local consumption. Smallholder farmers control the largest bulk of tea plantations, and most national production came from West Java.
Tea was introduced to Java during the Dutch East Indies period, and in the 19th century was part of the Dutch Cultivation System and became a major component of colonial exports. In the early 20th century, the Dutch East Indies was the largest exporter of tea outside India and Sri Lanka. Following the Second World War and Indonesian independence, exports and production began to decline, first due to the Japanese occupation and later due to the shift to domestic consumption.
Tea plants were introduced to modern Indonesia during the colonial period, when German botanist Andreas Cleyer brought tea seeds from Japan to Batavia in 1684. [1] [2] Small-scale cultivation in gardens were done in the 17th century, and unsuccessful efforts were made in the 18th century to establish commercial plantations. Efforts in the 1820s saw success in experimental plantations of Japanese tea seeds at the Bogor Botanical Gardens, and tea was made part of the Cultivation System by Governor-General Johannes van den Bosch in 1828. [1] Assam tea seeds from Ceylon were introduced in 1877. Plantations were initially established in Java, although they spread to North Sumatra in the early 20th century. [1]
In the early 20th century, the Dutch East Indies was the third largest source of tea exports, after British India and Ceylon, exporting more tea than China, [3] and tea was the second-most valuable export from the colony behind rubber. [4] An oversupply of tea led to a cartel being formed by European producers in India, Ceylon and the Dutch East Indies in 1930, but the cartel initially failed to maintain high prices for 3 years due to production by small-scale farmers in Indonesia. [3] Tea production declined precipitously during the Japanese occupation as tea plantations were converted to food crops. [4]
After the Indonesian National Revolution, Dutch-owned tea plantations were nationalized by the Indonesian government, while plantations owned by non-Dutch firms were acquired by private companies. [5] Tea remained a major export, but production began to shift from export plantations to smallholder farms for domestic consumption. Export volumes declined, with 1965 exports being just 53 percent of prewar volumes, although the country was still the world's fourth-largest exporter. [4] Modern tea processing factories were established in the late 20th century. [6] Primarily, the country produces black tea, although small-scale production of green tea for use in local jasmine tea is also popular. [1] National tea production has seen gradual decline in the 21st century, from around 160 thousand tons in 2000 to around 120 thousand in the 2020s. [1] [7] [8]
According to Statistics Indonesia, national tea production in 2022 was 124,662 tonnes, compared to 165,194 tonnes in 2002, [9] [10] produced from an area of 101,281 hectares. Around half of the plantation area were held by smallholders. [11] Government-owned plantations and smallholders made up most of the production, with large private estates producing just under 20% of the total. [9] Around two-thirds of national production originated in West Java, with Central Java and North Sumatra making up half the rest. [12] 45 thousand tonnes of tea were exported in 2022, worth USD 90 million, predominantly black tea. [13] In 2023, Indonesia was the eighth-largest producer of tea in the world, down from fifth in 2019. [10] Productivity is relatively low due to aged tea plants, with Dutch-planted trees still being harvested in some cases. [14] The Indonesian Tea Council claims that the tea industry employs over 200 thousand workers nationally. [15] Canned and bottled tea made up 77 percent of national consumption in 2016, with Sosro's Teh botol being the oldest brand. [16] Domestic tea demand had increased from 0.23 kg per capita to 0.38 between 2008 and 2022, primarily due to popularity of ready-drink tea brands. [10] The three largest bagged tea brands in Indonesia by volume in 2023 were Sariwangi (Unilever-owned), Sosro, and Tong Tji . [17]
Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of Camellia sinensis, an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and northern Myanmar. Tea is also made, but rarely, from the leaves of Camellia taliensis. After plain water, tea is the most widely consumed drink in the world. There are many different types of tea; some have a cooling, slightly bitter, and astringent flavour, while others have profiles that include sweet, nutty, floral, or grassy notes. Tea has a stimulating effect in humans, primarily due to its caffeine content.
Cardamom, sometimes cardamon or cardamum, is a spice made from the seeds of several plants in the genera Elettaria and Amomum in the family Zingiberaceae. Both genera are native to the Indian subcontinent and Indonesia. They are recognized by their small seed pods: triangular in cross-section and spindle-shaped, with a thin, papery outer shell and small, black seeds; Elettaria pods are light green and smaller, while Amomum pods are larger and dark brown.
West Java is an Indonesian province on the western part of the island of Java, with its provincial capital in Bandung. West Java is bordered by the province of Banten and the country's capital region of Jakarta to the west, the Java Sea to the north, the province of Central Java to the east and the Indian Ocean to the south. With Banten, this province is the native homeland of the Sundanese people, the second-largest ethnic group in Indonesia.
Bogor City or Bogor is a city in the West Java province, Indonesia. Located around 60 kilometers (37 mi) south of the national capital of Jakarta, Bogor is the 6th largest city in the Jakarta metropolitan area and the 14th overall nationwide. The city covers an area of 111.39 km2, and it had a population of 950,334 in the 2010 Census and 1,043,070 in the 2020 Census. The official estimate as at the end of 2023 was 1,127,408. Bogor is an important economic, scientific, cultural, and tourist center, as well as a mountain resort.
Tegal is a city in the northwest part of Central Java of Indonesia. It is situated on the north coast of the province of Central Java, about 175 km (109 mi) from Semarang, the capital of the province. It had a population of 239,599 at the 2010 Census and 273,825 at the 2020 Census; the official estimate as of mid-2023 was 262,781.
The Cultivation System was a Dutch government policy from 1830–1870 for its Dutch East Indies colony. Requiring a portion of agricultural production to be devoted to export crops, it is referred to by Indonesian historians as tanam paksa.
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Agriculture in Indonesia is one of the key sectors within the Indonesian economy. In the last 50 years, the sector's share in national gross domestic product has decreased considerably, due to the rise of industrialisation and service sector. Nevertheless, for the majority of Indonesian households, farming and plantation remains as a vital income generator. In 2013, the agricultural sector contributed 14.43% to national GDP, a slight decline from 2003's contribution which was 15.19%. In 2012, the agricultural sector provides jobs to approximately 49 million Indonesians, representing 41% of the country's total labor force.
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Indonesia was the fourth-largest producer of coffee in the world in 2014. Coffee cultivation in Indonesia began in the late 1600s and early 1700s, in the early Dutch colonial period, and has played an important part in the growth of the country. Indonesia is geographically and climatologically well-suited for coffee plantations, near the equator and with numerous interior mountainous regions on its main islands, creating well-suited microclimates for the growth and production of coffee.
The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies, was a Dutch colony with territory mostly comprising the modern state of Indonesia, which declared independence on 17 August 1945. Following the Indonesian War of Independence, Indonesia and the Netherlands made peace in 1949. In the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824, the Dutch ceded the governorate of Dutch Malacca to Britain, leading to its eventual incorporation into Malacca (state) of modern Malaysia.
The Liberal Period refers to the economic policies instituted in the Dutch East Indies from the mid-19th century.
The economic history of Indonesia is shaped by its geographic location, its natural resources, as well as its people that inhabited the archipelago that today formed the modern nation-state of the Republic of Indonesia. The foreign contact and international trade with foreign counterparts had also shaped and sealed the fate of Indonesian archipelago, as Indians, Chinese, Arabs, and eventually European traders reached the archipelago during the Age of Exploration and participated in the spice trade, war and conquest.
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