Quake-ravaged region major coffee source

CHRIS CLOUGH
THE OLYMPIAN

Before Sunday's 9.0 magnitude earthquake, resulting in tsunamis and terror-filled photographs, most people in South Sound were likely to be familiar with Sumatra because of its coffee.

"Sumatra is fairly important to us," said Scott Merle, roast master and green coffee buyer for Olympia-based Batdorf & Bronson Coffee Roasters. "It's in the top five coffees that we roast."

Of course, Merle said, Sunday's disaster is a human tragedy first and foremost.

"Our immediate concern is not a big panic about Sumatra coffee," said Merle, who visited the island last year to learn more about the coffee-growing operations there. "The biggest issue is the personal one. What a horrible tragedy."

"This morning, I read about the tsunamis and the thousand and thousands of people killed or losing their homes," she said. "Then I was buying some coffee beans, and realized I get Sumatra all the time without really thinking about where Sumatra is or what life there is like."

Indonesia, which includes Sumatra, trailed only Brazil, Colombia and Vietnam in coffee production in 2000, according to coffeeresearch.org.

More...