Coffee was not a native plant to the archipelago. In the 17th century, when Indonesia was still under Dutch occupation, the VOC brought Arabica coffee plants to Indonesia. They were interested in growing the plants and sought to break the worldwide Arab monopoly on the coffee trade.
The Dutch Colonial Government initially planted coffee around Batavia (Jakarta), and as far south as Sukabumi and Bogor. Coffee plantations were later established in East Java, Central Java, West Java, and in parts of Sumatra and Sulawesi. Large areas of forested land were cleared and cultivated specifically for the development of these plantations.
The growth of coffee plantations was responsible for the development of a lot of infrastructure in Central Java during the turn of the 19th century. Roads and railways were needed to transport the coffee beans from the island interior to the ports where the coffee was loaded on ships and exported.
