Cocoa bean exports from Indonesia's main growing island of Sulawesi slumped 21 percent in December from the same month a year ago, and shed almost 60 percent in the whole of 2011, industry data showed on Wednesday. December Sulawesi cocoa exports were 12,051.72 tonnes in December from 15,169.12 tonnes a year earlier, while total Sulawesi exports for 2011 fell to 124,416.82 tonnes, versus 280,568.11 tonnes in 2010, data from the Indonesia Cocoa Association showed.
Indonesia, the world's third-largest cocoa producer, is battling disease and adverse weather conditions, which have hampered the country's cocoa supplies. "The problem with Sulawesi is that is that it is prone to VSD (Vascular-streak Dieback) due to the wet weather," said Chris de Lavigne, vice president of Industrial Practices at Frost & Sullivan.
"It goes in swings and roundabouts - some years are good because you have decent weather and others aren't so good. "There are ways to protect against that, but the Indonesian government has historically under-funded this industry." Early last year, Indonesia was hit by an abnormally wet rainy season, which wreaked havoc on the crop and hampered a $350 million programme launched in 2009, to boost production to more than 600,000 tonnes within five years.
A poor crop curbed shipments after wet weather triggered an outbreak of a deadly fungal disease ahead of the main harvest in April last year. A smaller harvest was underway in Sulawesi. Quality was a concern after dry weather hit plantations when the crop was still in its early stage.
"Over the years, these small growers, or even large plantations, ripped up their cocoa trees and started palm oil in its place," added de Lavigne. "To my mind, palm oil is the lazy man's crop, whereas cocoa requires quite a bit of tending to.(2012) all depends on the weather." Smallholders own 92 percent of the total plantation area, and the rest is held by state-owned and private plantation firms.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.