Preanger was the West Java region put under compulsory coffee cultivation by the Dutch from 1830 to around 1870.
Preanger is the region of West Java where the colonial government applied the *cultuurstelsel* (cultivation system) to coffee from 1830 to around 1870. Export crops were delivered to government warehouses instead of taxes. The system was profitable for the Dutch East India Company and the Dutch East Indies government but less so for the farmers forced to grow the crop. In the late 1880s a rust plague killed much of the plantation stock in the Sukabumi area of West Java.
Field notes
- i
The cultivation system was immortalized in Eduard Douwes Dekker's 1860 novel Max Havelaar, written under the pen name Multatuli, and the name Max Havelaar was later adopted by one of the first fair trade organizations.
- ii
The Dutch East India Company built its first large arabica plantations in the Preanger highlands in the early 1700s, and farmers there later endured forced cultivation under the Preangerstelsel, according to a Java exporter.
Within Preanger
Sources · 3 Every sentence here was checked against a source we read. Taste notes are what guides describe, not promises about your bag. Last revised 2026-11-10. Some details here are less settled than others.
- Coffee production indonesia — Wikipedia · Wikipedia
- Java coffee — Wikipedia · Wikipedia
- Java Malabar Coffee: West Java's Original Volcano Arabica · Indonesia Specialty Coffee (specialtycoffee.id)