Indonesia’s cocoa industry expects to process less beans this year

Indonesia’s cocoa industry expects to process 360,000 tonnes of  beans in both 2015 and 2016, down around 10 per cent from last year due to a declining local crop and restrictions on imports.
Cocoa processors in the world’s No.3 producer of the chocolate ingredient have in recent years
relied on imports of beans from West Africa to meet shortfalls in domestic output.
But government regulations issued in February stipulate that imported cocoa beans must be
checked in laboratories in their countries of origin before shipment to ensure that they were not
contaminated.
“The industry couldn’t import for the first half of this year,” said Sindra Widjaja, Executive Director
of the Indonesia Cocoa Industry Association.
He added that there was a shortage of facilities overseas that met the standards of Indonesia’s
quarantine body.
Indonesia’s cocoa bean imports are expected to decline 10 per cent this year from around 50,000
tonnes in 2015, Widjaja said.
He said that imports on restrictions did not need to be so strict as beans go through “lengthy and
sterile” preparation processes in Indonesia.
Widjaja also noted that Indonesia charged a total of 17.5 per cent in taxes and duties on cocoa bean
imports, compared to nothing in its neighbours Singapore and Malaysia.
Indonesia has struggled to increase cocoa production in recent years as yields decline from
ageing trees vulnerable to disease, and as farmers switch to more profitable and less labour intensive  crops like palm oil.
The country’s 2016 cocoa bean crop was expected to remain near a record low of 320,000
tonnes hit in 2015.
The decline in local processing has driven up imports of cocoa powder.  From January to September shipments into the country climbed to  40 per cent year-on-year to about 12,500 tonnes, according to data from the state statistics agency.