Cocoa Production Drops
Wednesday, 03 January, 2007 | 17:21 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: The long dry season during 2006 resulted in cocoa production continuing to go down.

In the last two months, production decreased to 10,000 tons, despite cocoa farmers being capable of producing export of around 50,000 tons per month on average.

“If production goes down, the impact is not only on exports, but also on farmers,” said Zulhefi Sikumbang, Head of the Indonesian Cocoa Association, in Jakarta, yesterday (2/1).

According to him, farmers certainly were not be able to benefit from the world's high cocoa price, US$1,792 per ton, up until March last year.

This price rose compared to October 2006, when it was around US$1,400.

“Cocoa prices reached their highest level in the last 16 months.” Zulhefi said, adding that the drop in cocoa exports would continue until February.

Indra Manenda Rossi