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View all search resultsWhy cacao-rich Indonesia is not (yet) a global chocolate producer
Why cacao-rich Indonesia is not (yet) a global chocolate producerBuilding on its decades-old role as a major cacao producer, Indonesia wants to push into the global chocolate market with a comprehensive supply chain from plantations via processing facilities to factories, but some key hurdles lie in the way.
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Seed of delight: A cacao fruit that is nearly ready for harvest is seen on Nov. 25 next to a Hindu shrine in Bali's Tabanan regency. (JP/Deni Ghifari)
I
ndonesia’s goal to upscale the downstream cacao industry faces a multitude of obstacles spanning the entire supply chain, from low crop yields to inconsistent quality that must be overcome for the country to become a meaningful chocolate exporter.
I Kadek Surya Prasetya Wiguna, CEO of Bali-based chocolate producer Cau Chocolates, said the industry faces various problems upstream, such as plant diseases and high capital expenditure on seeds and fertilizer.
“On the intermediary level, many [factories] in our [processing] industry still take unfermented cacao beans,” Kadek told reporters at a media briefing in Bali on Nov. 25, a practice he said violates an Agriculture Ministry regulation mandating that factories process only fermented beans.
Before being turned into intermediate products, cacao seeds normally go through six to 10 days of fermentation to prevent mold and undesirable pathogens, after which they are referred to as cacao beans.
The beans are then dried for another five to 10 days to further develop and stabilize their flavor, before being roasted and then turned into intermediate products, such as cocoa powder or cocoa butter.
Indonesian Cacao Council (Dekaindo) chairman Soetanto Abdoellah said at the same briefing on Nov. 24 that farmers sell unfermented beans because fermentation takes a long time and the financial incentive for the additional processing step is “unattractive”.
