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Unesa.ac.id, SURABAYA-Indonesia is one of the largest coffee bean producing countries in the world after Brazil, Vietnam and Colombia. The taste of Nusantara coffee is very varied, even has a worldwide quality. One of the typical Indonesian coffees is Ledug Coffee which is cultivated and produced by the Mitra Karya Tani Gapoktan in the valley area, Ledug area, Prigen, Pasuruan Regency, East Java.
Even though it has been widely known through international coffee promotions and festivals, Mitra Karya Tani is still experiencing several obstacles both in the production and promotion process. From the production side, some coffee beans were damaged due to the uneven frying process and manual cooling. The amount of damage is decent, which can be 5-6 kg per day. If converted into rupiah, the damaged coffee beans range from Rp. 600 thousand to Rp. 700 thousand.
Tempering Machine Design
To help Mitra Karya Tani, UNESA Faculty of Engineering lecturers consisting of Setya Chendra Wibawa, S.Pd., MT, Dwiarko Nugrohoseno, S.Psi., MM and Dyah Riandadari, ST, MT, through the Community Partnership Program funded by the Research Directorate and Community Service Budget 2021 offers a solution in the form of appropriate technology design (TTG) in the form of developing a coffee bean cooling machine to standardize quality and minimize damage to frying and cooling results.
The tempering machine designed by the UNESA lecturer team has several advantages, namely the faster cooling process of coffee beans, which is only about 45 minutes, while previously it took up to 75 minutes. The machine has a capacity of about 280 kg and is very different from the previous capacity, which is only about 100-125 kg. Of course the machine has automatically replaced the previously manual cooling system. The equipment and machines have been handed over to the chairman of the Mitra Karya Tani Gapoktan, Widi Prayitno.
Optimize Digital Marketing
Then in terms of marketing management, partners' efforts are also not optimal and tend to be based on word of mouth information. For this reason, UNESA designs, provides training and assistance for product marketing systems and media by utilizing digital technology such as websites and social media. "So far, the marketing system for partner products has been online, but it has not been maximized, so we optimize it to be more effective and efficient," said Setya Cendra Wibawa, Chairman of PKM.
According to him, Ledug Coffee, apart from having a diverse taste with a distinctive picking and production system, also has selling points and opportunities as a tourism base. The enchanting atmosphere of the expanse of coffee plantations is suitable for development as Ledug Coffee tourism.
Coffee Educational Tourism Development
In the future, Mitra Karya Tani plans to develop coffee education tours. Visitors can not only enjoy the variants of coffee on the slopes of Mount Welirang, they can also experience and learn firsthand, starting from coffee cultivation, roasting, to cupping coffee. "There will be classes later, visitors can learn and add insight about coffee there," said Setya Cendra.
According to him, the potential of the combination of flavors and coffee education tours needs to be spread widely. He hopes that with the help of the use of appropriate technology and digital technology-based marketing management, it can increase production productivity and increase Ledug Coffee sales. "Our intention is to help coffee farmers, and encourage the progress of the coffee business there (Prigen, ed)," he said.
Ledug coffee is the foundation of the welfare of the farmers and the economy of the people of the Prigen area. He hopes that the appropriate technology assistance and assistance can increase the productivity of Ledug Coffee and have an impact on improving the welfare of coffee farmers and the people of the Prigen area.
UNESA's efforts and contributions to Ledug coffee farmers are not the only time. Previously, in 2012, UNESA was also involved in researching the taste of Ledug coffee. "UNESA's synergy and contribution for coffee farmers will continue and develop to the next stage and spread to other fields," he said. #Unesa's Contribution to Indonesia [UNESA's PR]
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