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 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.Prior to World War Two, Central Java, in particular, had a very strong rail transportation system that brought coffee, sugar, pepper, tea and tobacco out of the province to the port city of Semarang.
Near the turn of the 19th century,a huge portion of the coffee plants in Indonesia, as well as Sri Lanka and Malaysia, contracted coffee rust. Coffee rust spread very quickly and wiped out entire plantations, devastating the colonial Indonesian coffee industry. The Dutch responded to the coffee rust by importing and planting Liberica coffee. This variety had a short-lived popularity and was also affected by disease. The Dutch colonial government then opted for the more resistant Robusta variety to replant the affected plantations. Robusta still makes up around 90% of the coffee crop in Indonesia today.