The Gayo Organic Coffee Farmers Association (PPKGO) is located in the Gayo Highlands of Aceh Province, northern Sumatra. Co-op members are dedicated to the production of 100% shadegrown, organic coffee.

In a region rife with political conflict, PPKGO has continued to produce and export high quality Sumatran coffee. Coffee is trucked from the co-op’s processing mill in Takengon to the port of Medan along stretches of road where rebel attacks are commonplace. The co-operative is ethnically diverse, and contains Gayo, Javanese, Acehnese, Padang and Batak peoples among it’s membership.

Co-op farmers live in the environmentally sensitive buffer zone to the Gunung Leuser National Park, which contains important sanctuaries for endangered species such as the Sumatran tiger, and use part of their fair trade premium to improve resource conservation.

PPKGO coffee is semi-washed in the Sumatran fashion, sun dried, and is machine and hand sorted. Their harvest runs from October to June. 

PPKGO was, and still is affected by the tsunami that hit on boxing day in 2004 - read more here