In May 2008, APED was invited as a delegation member of Indonesian Republic for “The 100th Session of The International Coffee Council and Other Related Meeting International Coffee Organization (ICO)” event in London.
Here is the journey notes as reported by M. Madya Akbar

Indonesian delegation in this ICO seminar and meeting directly lead by Indonesian Counselor in London, with participants consist of Multilateral Cooperation Director (Ditjen KPI-Den Haag), International Market Director (Ditjen P2HP-Deptan), Farm and Forestry Product Export Director (Ditjen Daglu-Depag), London KBRI staff (Kabid Ekonomi and Atase Perdagangan), staff/representative of: Ditjen Multilateral Deplu, Ditjen Industri Agro and Kimia Deperin, Puslit Kopi & Kakao Indonesia (Badan Litbang Pertanian, Deptan), Ditjen KPI Depdag, Advisor from Indonesian Coffee Exporter (AEKI), and Project Manager of Aceh Partnership for Economic Development (APED).

Seminar and meeting consist of delegations from 77 ICO member countries discuss about four main topics, but the most exciting is the seminars discuss about coffee geographical indication. Beside geographical indication big issue, a paper titled “Use of Geographical Indications for Coffee: Experience of Indonesia,” was also presented by Dr. Surip Mawardi, a researcher from Indonesian Coffee and Cocoa Research Center (Puslit Kopi & Kakao Indonesia), Badan Litbang Pertanian, Departemen Pertanian.

Some points from the seminar are Geographical Indication warranty can be given for market products which are reputable and specially characterized in according to local geographical condition where the products produced. Geographical Indication (GI) is also an intellectual human right belongs to community who live in a certain geographical area. GI also function to make product differentiation and increase producer sustainability in facing market competition. In some countries, GI warranty is already practiced in special coffee commodity with good reputation in market with geographical name, for example “Café de Colombia” that already had GI warranty in Colombia and the warranty is already registered in European Union.

Geographical Indication warranty application now is developing in European Union region, meanwhile in USA, intellectual human rights collectively registered in Certification Marks. Other coffee producer country that already registered its product in Certification Marks is Ethiopia with its three brands of coffee (Sidamo, Yirgacheffe and Harar).

The next step from international coffee is discussion about Geographical Indication Warranty need to be socialized to Indonesian Coffee Communities to anticipate the syndrome in world coffee market in future. Wishfully, Indonesia can optimally get benefit from its membership in ICO, in example proposing good projects and give benefits for Indonesian coffee community. Indonesia also should take advantageous from several project products that funded by ICO, as some publication about Positively Coffee that can be translated and showed in various website from certain institutions. (madya)