COCOA FROM SULAWESI.

Sulawesi is one of the 17,340 islands of Indonesia. From the air is looks somewhat like an octapus with four large tentacles. It is surrounded by beautiful waters full of marine life and coral reefs which make it a world class diving destination.

With land area of 174,600square kilometers is is the 11 largest island in the world with a populationof 16million. An island of much spectacle in views and culture is also home of Asian and Australasian species.Much of the flora and fauna do not exist out of Sulawesi.

Many of us will know Sulawesi by Starbucks Sulawesi Coffee. It is a seasonal coffee with a heavy body and just a little spicy. But Sulawesi is really famous for being of a world supplier of cocoa beans. Sulawesi beans are usually unfermented, bulk beans used as fillers with other fermented beans.

Sulawesi produces about 400,000 metric tons of cocoa beans and products( almost 80% of Indonesia production, including Java and Sumatraq.

Sulawesi cocoa beans are produced by small holder farmers on .5 to 1.5 hectacres of farms.Each farm produces between 400 to 800kg per hectacre.Sulawesi have some of the highest cocoa bean yields in the world and one of the largest areas in production. About two million people on Sulawesi are dependant on cocoa beans for their livlihood.

Farmers sell to collectors on motorbikes. Collectors sell to traders. Traders sell to local exporters. Small amounts go to local processors. 80% of the Sulawesi beans are sold by five multi-national affliate exporters in Sulawesi:EDF & Man, Olam, Cargill, ADM and Continaf. They in turn sort and grade and sell to buyers in US, Malaysia,Singapore and Brazil. There are also processors and manufacturers locally, one of the largest being Effem(Mars). Once out of Indonesia Indonesian cocoa beans become part of the global trade in cocoa.

Sulawesi cocoa beans are traded as "Sulawesi FAQ" in the New York Commodities Exchange.


Sulawesi farmers get about 80% of the export value of the beans as against 50%-60% in West Africa. There is no exploitation of children in the Indonesian cocoa trade.

The major problems which effect yield and quality is disease, (Cocoa Pod Borer) and the traditional methods used by small holder farmers. However with much support from government, World Cocoa Foundation, international and local institutions and processors and manufacturers farmers field schools are being set up. A pilot on Fermentationis being set up in Bali and disease control practices are being implemented.

Sulawesi is a most picteresque island. Created specially for two kinds of hiking, along the intricate coastline or inland into the central mountainous regions and the 2,290sq km national park. It was also created for the best experiences you can imagine in snorkling or deep diving.

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.