Johor

Johor is the home of Malaysian liberica. In the south of the peninsula, around Kluang, Batu Pahat and Paloh, smallholders grow the large-beaned species locals call kopi besar, the elephant bean, a species that makes up less than 2% of the world’s coffee. Johor grew more coffee than any other Malaysian state in 2018, and its growers and researchers are now trying to turn liberica into a speciality coffee.

The short version

• Liberica, the “elephant bean”, not arabica or robusta.
• 2,263 tonnes in 2018, about two-thirds of Malaysia’s coffee.
• Kluang, Batu Pahat and Paloh.
• Fruity and nutty, with jackfruit-like aromas.
• MARDI’s liberica clones, bred since 1992, launched at Kluang.

What does Johor liberica taste like?

Fruity and nutty, with a long aftertaste, the Khazanah Research Institute says. Perak’s agriculture officers, who chose liberica for their own state, describe a more complex cup than robusta or arabica, with aromas resembling jackfruit and pineapple, and The Star describes a full body with floral or fruity notes. Liberica beans are large, dense and high in sugar, so they need different roasting from arabica or robusta, one Malaysian roaster told Daily Coffee News.

Where and how is it grown?

Almost at sea level. In Kulai, Batu Pahat and Rengit, coffee grows at only 0 to 20 metres, much of it on peat, a roaster, XLIII Coffee, writes; Kulai has acidic clay loam, while Rengit and Batu Pahat have peat soils that would rot most arabica but suit liberica. At Bagan, in coastal Batu Pahat, a single-origin lot was grown at about 10 metres, on clay topped with peat, the Kuala Lumpur roaster Bean Shipper says; liberica was widely grown there in the 1980s before losing ground to oil palm, and abandoned farms are now being revived.

Place	Altitude	Soil	Source
Kulai	0–20 m	Acidic clay loam	XLIII Coffee
Rengit, Batu Pahat	0–20 m	Peat	XLIII Coffee
Bagan, Batu Pahat	About 10 m, under 15 m	Clay with peat topsoil	Bean Shipper

No official harvest calendar for Johor was found: liberica bears fruit throughout the year, Perak’s agriculture department says.

How much coffee does Johor grow?

Measure	Johor	Sabah
Harvested area, 2018	932 ha	1,400 ha
Production, 2018	2,263 t	1,067 t

Source: Department of Agriculture, via the Khazanah Research Institute.

Johor grew twice as much as Sabah on two-thirds of the area, and about two-thirds of Malaysia’s 3,369 tonnes, by our calculation. Malaysia’s output has kept shrinking since; in 2024 the whole country grew 2,861 tonnes, the agriculture ministry says.

Paloh’s elephant beans

Paloh and the villages around it grew liberica long before it became fashionable. As young people moved away, many plots were abandoned or replaced with oil palm, and the double-tracking of the railway removed decades-old trees from the line’s reserve. One planter transplanted 300–500 of those trees to his own land about ten years ago; his farm, The Big Bean, now has more than 6,000 trees, processes its cherries by honey processing, with one to two weeks of fermentation at about 26–29 °C and up to three months of sun drying, and hopes to make Paloh a coffee heritage town, The Star reports.

MARDI’s clones

Malaysia’s agricultural research institute, MARDI, began coffee research in 1981 and has bred liberica clones ever since: MKL1 in 1992, MKL2–4 in 1995 and MKL5–7 in 2008, chosen for earlier harvests, larger fruit, higher yields and more aroma. In 2023 it launched MKL 8, 9 and 10 at MARDI Kluang, where the deputy agriculture minister called Kluang and Batu Pahat suitable for liberica and their land fertile. Liberica suits Malaysia’s conditions, resists disease and fruits all year, Perak’s agriculture department says, though picking is laborious because the cherries don’t ripen together, MARDI notes.

A Johor geographical indication

Johor is preparing to register Kopi Liberika Johor as a geographical indication owned by the state government, working with the Batu Pahat district agriculture office and Malaysia’s intellectual property office, MyIPO, Johor’s state media reported in August 2024. Its pitch: liberica grows in the lowlands and in harsher conditions than arabica or robusta, has larger beans, moderate caffeine and low acidity. The state’s seed centre at Parit Botak, in Batu Pahat, produced 273,741 liberica seedlings from 2016 to 2023 for growers in Pontian and Kluang, enough for 402 hectares. New MARDI clones yield about 2.18 tonnes of cherry where old trees gave 1.29, though only 6–9% of liberica cherry ends up as coffee, a Paloh grower told Info Pertanian.

Johor and other Malaysian origins

• Coffee in Malaysia: the whole country, its imports and its history.
• Coffee in Indonesia: Malaysia’s biggest supplier, which also grows liberica.
• Kopi sock: how Malaysia’s kopitiams brew it.