During the Dutch Colonial Era, Blitar, which is located on the slopes of Mount Kelud, was used as a center for coffee cultivation in East Java, so that thousands of hectares of coffee plantations were opened here. The De Karanganjar plantation was no exception, which was founded in 1874 by H. J. Velsink and Hendrik Van Vredenberg, which was then managed by a Dutch company, namely NV. Mij Karanganjar culture. For decades, these foreign companies managed this plantation until the arrival of the Japanese in 1942 forced the activities on this plantation to stop temporarily.
When the Indonesian nation proclaimed its independence in 1945, the coffee plantation were slowly operating again but with several different companies. One of them is a company from the Netherlands, namely NV. Kooy & Voorhout which only lasted a few years, then they handed over this plantation to a group of local workers, where one of the figures was Denny Roeshadi who had worked on this plantation for a long time.
In 1957 President Sukarno nationalized state assets controlled by foreign companies. That was an
opportunity for Denny Roeshadi to apply for a permit to establish a company to be granted a
concession. So then the State gave a concession to PT. Harta which was founded by Denny Roeshadi
in 1960, which later in 1963 changed its name to PT. Harta Mulia. One of the factors that
strengthened the granting of this permit was Denny Roeshadi who also took up arms during the War
of Independence, where war veterans tended to be made easier to take over state assets from
foreign companies. So since then the De Karanganjar Plantation has been managed by the Roeshadi Family for three
generations. Some of the CEOs later became better known as politicians. One of them is Herry
Noegroho – the first son of Denny Roeshadi who served as Regent of Blitar 2003 – 2016 and Endro
Hermono – the second son, who was Deputy Mayor of Blitar 2005 – 2010 and is now a member of
the State Parliament from Gerindra faction. Currently De Karanganjar Plantation is led by Denny Roeshadi's first grandson, Wima Brahmantya.
Several important innovations achieved by Wima were opening this plantation as a tourist
destination with the brand "De Karanganjar", and also launching packaged coffee products with the
brand "De Karanganjar Koffie".
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