Consumers’ preferences for North Sumatera specialty coffees

Abstract

The distinctive and special taste of Indonesian coffees has been renowned in the world coffee market. In the coffee’s production system at the farm level, the term specialty coffee typically refers to sustainable coffee. To keep up and maintain the uniqueness of specialty coffees’ tastes, the Ministry of Law and Human Rights (Kemenkumham) of Indonesia has issued the Geographical Indication certification on coffees. Understanding consumers’ preferences are very important to be able to identify the market, enabling producers and businesses to promote their products in a better way. This study revealed the consumers’ preferences for North Sumatera specialty coffees and investigate the problems in marketing them. The conclusions are: the coffee’s taste is the most important factor for consumers in deciding the coffee shop to buy specialty coffees; the medium acidity level (sour taste) is the most important factor for consumers in choosing specialty coffees to buy; and consumers prefer Sidikalang Robusta coffee the most, followed by Sumatera Mandheling and Sumatera Simalungun Arabica coffee.