Establish own coffee export processing facility in the Gayo Highlands Koperasi Pedagang Kopi Ketiara is a coffee farmer cooperative located close to Takengon city which is located at the shore of lake Tawar in the Gayo Highlands of North Sumatra, Indonesia. The slopes of Gayo Highlands are ideal ground for growing high quality Arabica coffee. It is grown by most of the farmers on the slopes and, being a cash crop, forms the main income generating source for households in the area. The cooperative was found in 2009 initially by 20 small coffee traders that wanted to access the Fairtrade export market. The main initiator was the current chairwomen who provided working capital, office space, and processing facilities at the premises of her family coffee business named Ketiara PT. The current membership stands at 1.769 farmer of which 31% is female.Ketiara has the ambition to establish its own export processing facility on its own piece of land, including office block, storage, processing facilities, drying grounds, and a cupping lab. According to the cooperative this investment is necessary to become more self-reliant, export more coffee and increase the membership. The ambitions of the cooperative with respect to increase in output marketing and investment in its own export processing facility seems to be demonstrable and realistic in relation to the business case, although taking in mind that securing sufficient working capital and investment capital will be vital for the success. The business case is rather clear and the business vision within the cooperative seems to be present, but not yet really well focused. The track record of the cooperative over the past three years is positive in terms of its business performance but not in terms of its financial performance.

Based on the results of the company assessment and the proposed business case, the team who conducted the company assessment advises Agriterra to include Ketiara in its Indonesian client portfolio and start supporting the cooperative as of the first of May 2016. The cooperative has shown positive results over the past three years and is very ambitious to grow further on output marketing and value addition. There is a positive energy within the cooperative, shown by board, management and staff. It is proposed to Agriterra to start with a 7 months introduction action plan from the first of May, with the following activities: The 2016 introduction Action Plan has been developed which focused on the following aspects:• Develop a 5-year strategic business plan (the cooperative currently lacks clear focus and planning). • Improve overall financial management practices.• Improve the position of the (supervisory) board and understanding of their roles and responsibilities.• Increase understanding of internal capitalization in preparation of the planned asset investments.• Improve production and income of farmers through pest control and prevention. • Investigate opportunities and benefits of having an internal marketing department (instead of the relatively expensive current external marketing consultant).

Establish an own export processing facility on own piece of land, including office block, storage, processing facilities, drying grounds and a cupping lab.