Sustainability of Arabica coffee business in West Java, Indonesia: A multidimensional scaling approach

Abstract

Arabica coffee plantation area is limited, and production is still low while demand increases. The development of Arabica coffee in Indonesia faces many obstacles that threaten its sustainability. The objective of this study is to determine the sustainability status of the Arabica coffee business in West Java and formulate a sustainability strategy. Primary data were obtained through interviews with respondents and key persons from relevant stakeholders from upstream to downstream using a structured questionnaire. The study was conducted in August‒October 2021 in Garut District, West Java. Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) was used to assess the sustainability status of the Arabica coffee business in five dimensions, i.e., ecological, economic, social, marketing, and institutional. The results show that the Arabica coffee business in West Java is fairly sustainable, with an average score of 55.65%. The MDS analysis for each dimension reveals that the social dimension has the highest score (62.45%), followed by the ecological dimension (59.01%), the economic dimension (53.00%), the institutional dimension (51.92%), and the marketing dimension (51.87%). This study emphasizes five actions as parts of the sustainability strategy, i.e., adaptation and mitigation of climate change, creative efforts to increase farmers’ income, human resource capacity building, strengthening business partnerships, and strengthening farmer organizations.

Keywords

• leverage attribute
• sustainability index
• sustainability strategy
• sustainable coffee farming