Yanty has been the owner of a coffee plantation in North Sumatra for the past 11 years. Her passion in agriculture and coffee led her to embark on this business in 2011, relying solely on herself without any aid from her family members.
Formerly an employee at a local university, Yanty decided to dive into the business of coffee. She rolled up her sleeves and took over a coffee plantation in Aceh. From growing the crops, harvesting the coffee cherries and selling the beans, she had to self-learn all areas of coffee production. Her farm is located at Takengon town in Indonesia, a town that resides in the highlands of western Sumatra on the shores of Lake Lut Tawar, well-known for its good quality coffee beans.
Things weren’t as smooth-sailing as one would imagine, as she ventured into the business with a small capital to acquire land and hire manpower. It was challenging understanding the crops, the erratic weather, the timeliness of harvest and even after a good harvest, she faced more challenges – especially reaching the right buyers at a good price. In 2020, Yanty signed up with the ProfilePrint Exchange (www.theProfilePrint.com), an online B2B platform and food fingerprint technology empowering growers to sell crops at better prices based on unique fingerprint of the crops.
Instead of selling to local collectors that offer low prices, Yanty is now able to grade its beans via ProfilePrint’s A.I. quality profile predictor engine with only 5g worth of samples, and sell direct to overseas buyers with higher prices for correctly matched quality. Previously she had to send her beans to coffee graders which requires 1kg of samples for roasting, grinding, cupping amongst tasters for a physical report, while now she can get similar results digitally and send to her potential buyers via an online report.
Yanty discovered ProfilePrint when she participated in the Virtual Future Tea & Coffee Expo and Summit (www.FutureTeaCoffee.com), a digital event that helps bridge farmers to buyers from around the world given travel restrictions due to the pandemic. The event allowed Yanty to connect with sellers using ProfilePrint, enabling buyers to more effectively source for food ingredients according to their taste profile, and farmers such as Yanty to reach a global market of buyers.
She sees a positive future ahead for her industry especially how digital technology is now more accessible and transforming the way farmers operate. Despite her initial challenges, Yanty has a clear vision for the future.
She aims to build and fund a coffee corporation by 2021 in Takengon that focus on helping more widow farmers with help from investors. She believes that women are key to food production, but many are not fulfilling their potential due to cultural challenges. In her farm, majority of her team is made up of widows, who are sole-breadwinners and often have to shoulder coffee beans that make up their own weight, both metaphorically and literally.
Her message to all aspiring farmers: Always seek help if you ever need to kickstart a project! You will never know how far you can go if you don’t ask!
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