Customer Success Story: Peach and Panda

Established: Farm in 2017 in Lintong, North Sumatra, the Group 2021 in Denpasar Bali

Farm Size: 1 hectare

Output: 800-900 kg of red cherries, mill processes up to 2 tons

Varieties: Grow S795, Buy Tim Tim, Onan Ganjang

Sample roaster/Roaster used: Behmor sample, 1kg VNT Nordic

Peach and Panda is a vertically integrated coffee farm and roasted coffee brand located, available throughout Indonesia and starting to export to countries like Singapore and UK. In 2017, Christian purchased the 1 hectare farm in Lintong, Bali and planted coffee seedlings. Chris was still in his corporate job, but in 2021 could commit to his coffee business full time. His farm grows S795 and purchases Tim Tim and Onan Ganjang varieties from his neighbors as cherry or wet parchment . From this mix of self-grown and purchased coffee, his mill processes up to 2 tons of cherry. Chris describes Indonesia as a coffee country of many small farms, despite being among the fourth largest producer of coffee.

His journey with Cropster started with using our Roasting Intelligence software, which eventually led him to Cropster Origin. Like most people prior to using Origin, he was managing his farm production data in ‘endless’ spreadsheets. Chris says that one of “the beauties of Cropster Origin is that farm workers can immediately input data into the app instead of using a pen and paper and then transferring to sheets.” This alone has improved his farm management at a higher level.

Data Collection and Operations

Christian believes that Origin has improved the way he operates the workflows at his farm from processing to roasting. Although he focuses on micro-lots at his farm, he emphasizes that this doesn’t mean there’s not a lot of data. And not relying on spreadsheets makes this data much easier to collect and analyze.

Chris says, “previously, if I wanted to model my production costs, such as data between stages and processes, it was all modeled by myself. All these data points describe how well or bad you are running your operation. Now, with this data in Cropster Origin, I can simply model and extract all the data points I need.” It essentially gives Chris and his team an in-depth overview of what is happening at his mill and what is happening to his coffees. Essentially, this data collection improves the way his team manages post-harvest processing and quality control because of the completeness and real-time data available from the farm.

Origin Features that Enhance Operational Performance

Like most Cropster products, Origin offers a variety of features that help users like Christian customize and change the way they process their coffees. This customizability is essential to accommodate the unique methods Christian uses compared to other producers around the world; because not every producer produces coffee the same way and Cropster gives that flexibility to customize processes.

Christian explains that one of his favorite features is “simply the ability to model a complete process and describe exactly each stage of each process. Previously, I could not divert both stages of defect sorting, for example. Now, with Origin, I can see the completeness of how much coffee I am really yielding, from wet cherry to green coffee.” Essentially, Origin features allow the ability to control and improve the process and track the effect on the quality of coffee produced.

Recording batches and lots in Cropster Origin gives the ability to model different custom processes; naturals, a semi-washed, washed, etc. Christian emphasizes Cropster features such as yield benchmarks and adjusting processes to specifics, provide producers more insights to their volumes and quality, which are extremely important to planning and calculating production costs.

Cropster Origin on Quality Assurance, Quality Control, and Roasting

Christian is certain that the ability to collect and analyze data with Origin is extremely efficient. Unlike manually collecting data in sheets, Cropster Origin has various data points not only for production but also for quality that allow users, such as Christian, to analyze and make informed decisions on how to maintain and improve quality.

Before inputting any data into Cropster Origin, Christian has internal requirements to guarantee that he purchases only optimal wet cherry that he can then control through to parchment and then to green prior to roasting. Because of Cropster Origin, he says that he “has full control of the data from wet cherry to green and always has a quick way of accessing of every step.” This ensures that he has an enhanced quality control before it becomes a clean green coffee, which will inevitably influence the roasting process.

One of the unique aspects of Peach and Panda is full control of their vertically integrated business from production to roasting. Cropster Origin has essentially helped them analyze their data more efficiently before roasting, as they do not depend on others to supply traceability, quality, and production data. Thanks to Cropster Origin, Peach and Panda have the tools to share information with their customers about some of the highest quality coffee that Indonesia offers.