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Falling production leaves bitter aftertaste in Indonesia’s cocoa industry
Bars of flavorful chocolate displayed at supermarkets across the country cannot sugar-coat the bitter fact that Indonesia’s cocoa industry is in dire straits.
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Farmers tend to cacao plants at a plantation in Salulemo, North Luwu, South Sulawesi. (-/Syafrizaldi)
B
ars of flavorful chocolate displayed on shelves at supermarkets across the country cannot sugar-coat the bitter fact that Indonesia’s cocoa industry is in dire straits.
Several factories have been forced to close due to their failure to cater to soaring demand for chocolate, believed to have various favorable effects on the human body, from improving one’s mood to preventing heart disease, amid a lack of cacao beans.
The head of the beverages, tobacco and refreshments subdirectorate at the Industry Ministry, Mogadishu Djati Ertanto, revealed that nine of 20 cacao-processing factories had stopped production since last year. The remaining 11 factories were running below 59 percent of their capacity to process around 463.060 tons of cacao beans this year.
“We need to import cacao beans, because many factories have stopped operations due to a lack of supply,” he said during a discussion attended by cocoa industry representatives, government officials and agricultural research bodies at the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) headquarters in Jakarta on Wednesday.
The cocoa industry has been pushing the government to cut the import duty from 5 percent to 1 percent and eliminate the 10 percent import value added tax (VAT) for cacao beans as imports continue to climb to meet domestic demand.
An International Cocoa Organization (ICCO) report shows that Indonesia’s cacao bean production has declined rapidly from 410.000 tons in 2013 to an estimated 240.000 tons in 2018. The report also reveals that Indonesia, which used to be the third-largest cacao bean producer, is now in fourth place, behind Ivory Coast (2 million tons), Ghana (969,000 tons) and Ecuador (290,000 tons).
As a result, the country’s cacao bean imports more than doubled to 239,377 tons in 2018 from 109,409 tons in 2013, Statistics Indonesia data show.
