Feb 11, 2008

Acheh: Gayo Lose Coffee Rights to Dutch Firm


A Dutch company has stripped the Gayo people of the right to market coffee as their own, asserting that the name is their ‘trademark’.

A Dutch company has stripped the Gayo people of the right to market coffee as their own, asserting that the name is their ‘trademark’.

Below is an article published by the Jakarta Post:

The Gayo tribe in Aceh Nangroe Darussalam may already have lost the right to use their own name in international trade for their own brand of coffee after a Dutch firm officially claimed Gayo coffee as its trademark.

Made from one of the world's finest varieties of Arabica beans grown only in central Aceh's highlands, the Gayo trademark coffee can only be used in international trade by Amsterdam-based company Holland Coffee B.V.

"We recently received a letter from Holland Coffee, reminding us not to use the word Gayo on the packages of Gayo coffee exported to the Netherlands," Rachim Kartabrata, the executive secretary to the Indonesian Coffee Exporter Association (AEKI), told The Jakarta Post recently.

Rachim said Holland Coffee claimed to have registered the word as one of its brands, Gayo Mountain Coffee.

Gayo coffee is produced only in the area of Aceh Tengah and Bener Meriah, known as the country's second largest coffee bean plantation.

The coffee was named Gayo after the Gayo people who process the beans.

The coffee is a favorite among Europeans and Americans for its strong premium taste and long shelf life.

According to Rachim, CV Arvis Sanada, the Indonesian company Holland Coffee has asked to give up the name, had refused to stop exporting its coffee under the name of Sumatra Arabica Gayo.