ANDRE HAMBOER
TUANG COFFEE
Ruteng is home to Tuang Coffee, a forerunner of specialty coffee production and ethical sourcing on Flores Island. Tuang was founded by Andre Hamboer with a vision to elevate Manggarai coffee in ways that deliver higher incomes for coffee farmers. Tuang’s coffee comes from more than 1000 smallholder farms at elevations of 1400-1700 in thirteen villages in the districts of Manggarai and East Manggarai. They’ve worked closely with their village-based collectors to develop a steady supply of meticulously picked and sorted red coffee cherry, which they then process in Ruteng. They collaborate with their collectors to set the price to be received by farmers and then pay the collectors a separate fee — a departure from the standard practice of paying collectors a set rate and lacking knowledge of the price farmers receive.
Andre says “We ask them to work together to unleash diamonds inside a simple product named coffee.” By partnering with Tuang Coffee, the farmers can get a fair price on every coffee that they pick, because with the help of Kopi Kedaya (formerly Goodel Indonesia), we ultimately give them access to serve their valuable product to the specialty coffee market. We are honored to be a part of this network of coffee producers in Flores. Andre’s dilligence to trade coffee with integrity has gained him world wide recognition, being nominated for the SCA 2023 sustainability award.