JAPAN and the WORLD Magazine APRIL ISSUE 2016 #Issue 15 | Page 43

TOURISM IN JAPAN
TOYAMA
Credits: World Agroforestry Centre/Yusuf Ahmad
Without a significant rise in imports, domestic
industries are at risk of running far below capacity.
Following investments from companies, such
as global food giant, Cargill, Singapore-based
JB Cocoa, and the world’s biggest chocolate
ECONOMY
Industry:
Petroleum and natural gas; textiles,
apparel, and footwear; mining,
cement, chemical fertilizers.
Agriculture:
Rice, cassava (tapioca), peanuts,
rubber; poultry.
Exports:
Oil and gas, electrical appliances,
plywood, textiles, rubber.
maker, Barry Callebaut, national cocoa grinding
capacity reached 600,000 tons by the end of
2014, up from 324,000 tons in 2013 (ASKINDO).
Grinding capacity is expected to surpass 1 million
tons in 2016 as more companies plan to set up
shop. Olam International, for example, wants
to launch operations at a 61 million USD cocoa
processing facility in early 2016.
Grinding capacity is
expected to surpass
1 million tons in 2016
as more companies
plan to set up shop.
Multinational firms, such as Asia Cocoa
Indonesia, Jebe Koko, Barry-Comextra, and
Cargill, are among the foreign players that
have built their cocoa grinding facilities in
Indonesia. Resulting in a combined capacity of
310,000 tons per year to cash in on the growing
chocolate industry in Indonesia.
Smallholder farmers work more than 90% of
Indonesia’s cocoa cultivation area of around 1.6
million hectares, with the rest shared between
state-owned and private plantation companies.
Typically holding less than one hectare,
JAPAN AND THE WORLD MAGAZINE
smallholder farmers lose out on economies
of scale because it makes little sense for them
to introduce sophisticated equipment. They
also often employ poor farming methods and
lack knowhow on pest control. In some areas,
productivity has fallen so much that farmers
have switched to rubber or palm oil production.
A multi-year program launched by the
government in 2009 to provide free fertilizer and
better seeds and to rejuvenate and strengthen
cocoa trees has done little to improve the
situation at the farm level. The Indonesian Coffee
and Cocoa Research Institute (ICCR) organizes
regular workshops to help improve skills and
cocoa cultivation techniques, but that, too, has
shown little effect on the ground. The private-
sector initiatives, such as the Nestlé Cocoa Plan,
aim to help farmers improve their methods and
pest resistance through training programs.
There is widespread agreement that Indonesia
has the potential to more than double the cocoa
output from current levels to 1 million tons, but
getting there will require substantial efforts. The
quality of Indonesian cocoa could be improved
if farmers used better post-harvest practices
and if more of them decided to ferment beans
before going to market. One factor that works
in the cocoa industry’s favor is improving
infrastructure, which will facilitate farmers’
access to inputs, such as fertilizer, and reduce
the risk of molding while beans are transported
from the farm gate to processing facilities.
APRIL 2016 // 42