INDONESIA CELEBRATES.

Indonesia celebrated it 63rd anniversary of Independence on Sunday 17Th August. In my community there was a lot of chocolate at our Traditional Foods Bazaar which was the main part of our celebrations. I sold 56 bars of Silver Queen Chunky(my best ever record in 6 hours) which is a 100gm long corrugated bar with lots of bite and mouth feel. Other stalls sold homemade chocolate tarts,chocolate biscuits,chocolate rice buns and various other chocolate pastries.

I paused a bit to consider,was chocolate really a traditional Indonesian food? I sell Silver Queen(among others), the brand which has dominated this market for over 50 years. There are numerous home industries that have been operating with chocolate for years.According to a manufacturer of chocolate ingredients, they have a list of over16,000 such industries in five major cities in Java. I have even had the privilege of visiting some of them recently. Traditions of chocolate at home and hearth are strong.

This country provides,what the World Cocoa Foundation says, is "an efficient, good quality 'bulk' beans and products supplier to World Markets." Their figures also say that we provide 16% of the World's Cocoa and Cocoa products market.

It is not perhaps a well known that the Petra Foods Group which has several manufacturing units in Indonesia( the Group,s heritage has strong Indonesian roots) is the third largest manufacturer of cocoa products in the world.

Exports of cocoa products by Indonesian processors is worldwide. BT Cocoa regularly supplies Cargill, Unicom International, Theobroma. Olam, Barry Callebaut among others.

Indonesian products even go to South America, if you forgive my cliche, is rather like shipping coals to Newcastle. A full circle completes! In the late 16 Century cocoa arrived from Caracas, Venezuela from Indonesia.

Indonesia cocoa development programmes include Farmer Field Schools, CPB Control, Applied Research. Pilot Activities Scaling up Successful Innovations and Improving Farm Level Incomes, Productivity and Quality.It may be possible that by 2020 Production could could double to one million metric tonnes, supplying a fifth of World market requirements.

I am a little envious of Vietnam's programme with the WCF Partnership. Here Long Lam University with WCF Funding has programmes of germplasm,breeding and setting up of demonstration plots on cocoa-agro systems.Plantations in Java have implemented cocoa-agro systems growing vanilla and other crops alongside cocoa. But it can be more wide spread and growing with research and technology guidance.

It must also be noted that Indonesian cocoa meets all the ethical and moral requirements of world trading.