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TEMPO/Cocoa Giant Builds Factory in RI
"ADM has expressed its interest,” the Industry Ministry’s Food, Maritime Products and Fishery director, Faiz Ahmad, said yesterday.
ADM is the third-largest cocoa producer in the world and Indonesia could fulfill its raw material supply. After the government restricted cocoa seed exports, international cocoa processing industries are obligated to build their factories in Indonesia.
Last year, Indonesia’s cocoa seed production reached 575,000 tons per year and only 200,000 tons was absorbed by the local cocoa processing industry. The rest was exported in non-processed form.
The government has projected that cocoa production will reach 1.2 million tons per year by 2014. “ADM’s step was in accordance with the government’s policy which limits cocoa seed exports by imposing a cocoa tax,” he said.
Indonesia has been supplying cocoa seeds to ADM’s plants in Singapore and the US. ADM expected to build a plant with at least 60,000 tons of annual production capacity with a total investment of US$100 million.
Besides ADM, three other leading companies have also stated their intention to build factories in Indonesia. They are Barry Callebaut, Cargill Cocoa and Chocolate Industries and JB Cocoa.
Barry and Cargill are the second- and third-biggest cocoa industries in the world today. Based in the Netherlands, Barry plans to build a plant in West Sulawesi with an annual production capacity of 50,000 tons. Meanwhile, Cargill is ready to build a cocoa processing plant in South Sulawesi.
AGUNG SEDAYU
