Askindo Says Many Parties Overcome The Challenges Of Indonesian Kakao Plantation

Illustration (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Chairman of the Kakao Farmers Association (Askindo) Arif Zamroni hopes that many parties, both the government, researchers and community entrepreneurs, are involved in overcoming three challenges to Indonesian local cocoa plantations which are one of the raw materials for the chocolate industry in the world.

"How to manage cocoa plantations such as caring for babies, it needs great attention for farmers so that they can still be interested in planting cocoa," said Arif, quoted from ANTARA, Wednesday, November 30.

Arif said, there are three challenges in the development of Indonesian local cocoa plantations, namely farmers' welfare, declining productivity and increasing demand for world brown raw materials.

Indonesia, said Arif, is the country with the top three producers of brown raw materials, namely cocoa.

There is one million farmers who are still involved in developing Indonesian cocoa plantations.

However, there are challenges in the welfare of farmers, who are mostly old, and also threaten the sustainability of the younger generation to want to take part as cocoa farmers.

Currently, the raw material for cocoa produced in Indonesia has relied on imports since the last few years.

According to the Director of the Beverage Industry, Tobacco Products and Budgeting Materials of the Ministry of Industry, Edy Sutopo in 2014, from the need for raw materials for cocoa beans, around 363 thousand tons, 70 percent is supplied from domestic production.

But in 2022, domestic supply will decrease by only 45 percent.

"So there needs to be breakthroughs, not to mention we are talking about the age of farmers who are getting older, so this needs regeneration for Cacao farmers and replaced by millennials," he said.

Arif assessed that efforts to make millennial farmers interested in growing cocoa are a challenge, how the cocoa plantation sector becomes an agribusiness and all from an economic perspective can provide benefits to farmers, on the other hand it can meet industrial needs.

Then, he continued, the global challenge for the cocoa sector, it turns out that the growth in brown demand in the world is 3.5 percent to 4.5 percent, it always increases every year.

Arif believes that investment in the cocoa sector is still promising because demand is increasing.

There are still many plants in Indonesia and the land can still be developed.

"The point is that this is something that has good business opportunities, this should be one of the ways cocoa production in Indonesia is increasing, then there is market demand, which is specific, we should consider an opportunity to be able to meet global global demand in the world," he said.