And farmers do not expect a harvest peak in December, as is usually the case. That said, weather conditions delayed the harvest in this region by about a month, starting in the end of October. With most of the farms in this region located at 1,300 meters above sea level and closer to the Gereudong volcano, temperatures have remained a little cooler and their rich, volcanic soils maintain more resilient coffee trees. Only 10 kilometers away, the village of Ujung Gele does not experience the same dramatic problems. This situation is very similar in all farms located lower than 1,200 meters above sea level in the sub-districts of Aceh Tengah and Bener Meriah. For that reason, Permata Gayo Cooperative has advised the farmers in this region not to deliver their coffee this harvest. Because of these extremely low earnings, it is simply not worth producers’ time to collect and deliver cherry to the washing stations. To put this into economic terms, the lower yields caused by these “empty cherries” resulted in earnings of $2,000 IDR ($0.15 USD) per kilo, when the local price for regular yields of “normal” cherries were $10,000 IDR ($0.74). On average, farmers discovered at least 45 percent of the harvested coffee cherries contained no coffee beans. What I witnessed during my recent visit to the Permata Gayo Cooperative and their primary community of Tanjung Sari - 1,100 meters above sea level- concerns me deeply. Members of Coop Coffeesa with members of the Permata Gayo Cooperative.
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