ER
A WOMAN complained that she could not sleep for three days after drinking a cup of coffee with milk. This complaint was conveyed by the woman while attending a workshop held by the founder of the Coffeenatics coffee business, Harris Hartanto, at her shop, Jl. Teuku Cik Ditiro, 8K Medan one day.
Hearing this complaint, Harris suspected that the coffee beans the woman drank were robusta. Drinking one cup of robusta is the same as drinking three cups of arabica. The caffeine content of Robusta is more than that of Arabica and this makes the taste of Robusta coffee tend to be more bitter than Arabica coffee.
He then advised the woman to avoid coffee with Robusta beans and choose 100 percent Arabica. The woman then said she didn’t know how to tell the difference between the two coffee beans.
Harris then asked the woman to get used to asking the coffee seller about the coffee beans used, especially if this information was not available.
Actually, it’s not just about the type of coffee bean, but the origin of the bean, including the location of production, is also valuable information for consumers. For Harris, this is an embodiment of transparency towards consumers and he has practiced it through his coffee business brand.
He made a sort of profile card that contained information on the origin of the coffee beans, the location of production, the owner of the coffee fields and consumers who could find them when they visited the shop. One of these profile cards contains information about the naturally processed Gayo coffee of the Ateng Super variety from Paya Baning, Aceh.
Harris admits that he is more focused on local coffee production and for that he works with hundreds of coffee farmers from various locations in Indonesia, including Aceh, Simalungun, and Karo, North Sumatra, either directly or using cooperatives in his area.
He empowers them, one of which is through the Field Adoption Program to help them control the quality of coffee beans while helping to improve the farmers’ economy.
Five years after his business stabilized, Harris began buying coffee beans from farmers with the highest prices regardless of whether the coffee beans were good or not in the hope that every year they would be better.
“Grade 1, for example, is IDR150,000, grade 2 is IDR130,000. I don’t want to know what grade I bought for IDR150,000. (Farmers) feel there is a commitment, sometimes 50% down payment (DP). This is an adoption program,” said he.
Talking about efforts to perpetuate a business, it cannot be separated from innovation and this is as simple as packaging. He wants his coffee products to be available in various forms so that he presents capsule, sachet and ready-to-drink coffee packages. This is in accordance with the commitment he made since the beginning of setting up his coffee business in 2015, apart from being affordable and of good quality.
Apart from opening a cafe in Medan, Harris also sells online through Tokopedia and uses Tokopedia Services to expand market reach. Since joining Tokopedia, the store’s transactions have increased up to 3.5 times per year.
He uses this online shop not only to sell coffee products, but also the tools needed to mix a coffee drink, targeting coffee cafes.
“Use one platform to serve two consumers, business to consumer and business to business. All the mushrooming cafes are our friends. We offer coffee beans, maybe they want it,” said Harris.
Meanwhile Tokopedia Senior Lead Corporate Affairs, Rizky Juanita Azuz believes that digitalization is currently a necessity for local Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) activists like Harris to reach a wider market. Moreover, local coffee has tremendous economic potential.
Then, she continued, in line with the government’s efforts to increase the number of business actors in Indonesia, his company continues to intensify the Hyperlocal initiative so that more business actors, including coffee MSMEs in Medan, can create opportunities through the use of digital channels.
According to her, the Tokopedia Served service, which is one of the manifestations of Hyperlocal, allows sellers to leave products at Tokopedia’s smart warehouses in areas with high demand so that sellers do not need to move to the capital city to reach a wide market, and buyers can get these products more quickly and efficiently. .
Tokopedia noted that there was an increase in the number of sellers and transactions utilizing the Tokopedia Served smart warehouse in North Sumatra including Medan and its surroundings by more than 2.5 times.
Likewise, Head of Corporate Affairs Tokopedia, Ekhel Chandra Wijaya, said that the Hyperlocal initiative will continue to be the center of his company. Apart from being served by Tokpedia, another manifestation of Hyperlocal is the Selected Store Collection (KTP), which is a product curation page from the seller closest to the buyer’s location.
Data noted that the number of transactions in North Sumatra including Medan and its surroundings increased by almost 1.5 times in May 2023 compared to the monthly average for 2023 (January-April) due to the KTP campaign.
“Hopefully, there will be more stages that can be utilized by business people. From an innovation standpoint, we hope to continue to roll out innovations that are always relevant,” Ekhel concluded. [antaranews/photo special]
