U.S. food and drug officials to inspect RI cocoa
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The United States' Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will send its officials to Indonesia in March to inspect the quality of Indonesian cocoa beans and discuss the possibility for Indonesia to increase its cocoa exports to the country, according to a senior governmental official.
Director for the exports of agricultural and mining products at the Ministry of Industry and Trade Ferry Yahya said Saturday the planned visit came in response to a request by the Indonesian government.
"The talks (with the FDA officials) will focus on the difficulties faced by Indonesian cocoa producers to enter the U.S. market.
"Besides, they will also visit the cocoa production centers in Sulawesi," he was quoted by Antara as saying.
According to Ferry, the U.S. government has barred many cocoa beans and chocolate products from Indonesia from entering the country given their poor quality and because they often carry pests. The U.S. government feared that the pests could spread diseases in the country.
Due to the worries about the pests, the U.S. government imposes the so-called "automatic detention" on Indonesian cocoa beans entering the country's ports, which costs Indonesian exporters US$200 per ton. This, of course, cuts down on the earnings by Indonesian exporters.
"That's why we invited the FDA to come here," Ferry said, adding that the visit was initially scheduled for late last year but was canceled following the Oct. 12 Bali bombing.
The U.S. is the largest market for Indonesian cocoa beans, importing 149,905 tons of beans worth $144.3 million of the total Indonesian exports of 371,606 tons worth $363.6 million in 2001, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics.
Ferry said Indonesia would ask the U.S. to transfer its technology to improve the quality of Indonesian cocoa beans and chocolate products.
Besides, he said, the Indonesia government would also ask the FDA to authorize Indonesian companies to check the quality of the Indonesian cocoa beans and chocolate products bound for the U.S. market.
He said the visit by the FDA officials would come at an opportune time for Indonesia in light of the protracted war in the Ivory Coast, the world's largest cocoa producer. The war has caused a drop in cocoa supply on the global market and pushed cocoa prices to a 17-year high recently.
"Due to the internal conflict in the Ivory Coast, Indonesia, which was the world's second largest cocoa producer until the conflict, has now become the world's largest producer," Ferry said.
Indonesia produced an estimated 430,000 tons of cocoa beans last year, up from 380,000 tons in the previous year.