CropLife Indonesia supports CocoaSafe Indonesia Initiative

Demonstrating its commitment to promote stewardship and sustainability, CropLife Indonesia is supporting CocoaSafe, an initiative focusing on capacity building and knowledge sharing on Sanitary and Phytosanitary issues in cocoa.  The initiative is led jointly by CABI and ICCRI (Indonesian Coffee and Cocoa Research Institute). Besides ICCRI and CABI, the program is also supported by International Cocoa Organization (ICCO) as well as Standard and Trade Development Facility (STDF).

Cocoa’s strategic importance in Indonesia’s economy

Cocoa is one of major commodities grown and exported from Indonesia in large quantities and hence it has a pivotal role in the country’s food trade and economy. According to the Directorate General of Plantations, Indonesia has about 1.8 million hectares of cocoa, and the Island of Sulawesi accounts for more than two-thirds of Indonesia cocoa production followed by Sumatra Island. ICCO (The International Cocoa Organization) ranks Indonesia as the third largest exporter of cocoa after Cote d’ Ivory and Ghana with production of 700,000 MT of cocoa beans in 2014.  However, Indonesia is facing difficulties in elevating cocoa’s important role in the economic development of the country.

Smallholders account for more than 94% of cocoa plantations, and these farmers often face a variety of challenges in conducting business.  These include access to finance means to optimize production capacity and quality as well as lack of proper knowledge in Good Agricultural Practices, IPM, post-harvest handling, Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) issues affecting trade. In recent years, Indonesian cocoa farmers have been grappling with disappointing harvests due to various reasons such as crop diseases and pests as well as adverse weather resulting in yields nearly halving to 700 kg per hectare, far below the potential yield. The Indonesian Government is providing incentives to the tune of IDR 1.2 zillion to revitalize and expand cocoa plantations in the country.

Focus on Food Safety

Food safety has become a main concern around the world, to provide safer food, including cocoa, for consumers. Presence of heavy metals, pesticide residues beyond permissible levels and contamination due to microbes or other organisms pose significant challenges particularly from the food safety and quality perspective.  For Indonesia, cocoa ranks fourth in terms of foreign exchange earnings from agriculture sector after palm oil, rubber and coconut.  However, most of Indonesia’s cocoa export constitutes raw beans instead of processed cocoa.  Major destinations for Indonesia’s cocoa beans are USA, Singapore and Malaysia.  Due to non-conformance to standards, Indonesian cocoa beans usually fetch lower prices. For example, USA implements a price cut up to 15% for Indonesian cocoa (automatic detention) because of mold, pest or impurities. In a recent finding, Japan has found that cocoa beans from Indonesia exceed the MRLs for a particular herbicide, which caused rejections at the port of importation.

The CocoaSafe Initiative

The CocoaSafe program is designed to spread knowledge and awareness about best practices along the cocoa supply chain in several countries including Malaysia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. Through hands-on trainings, this program is helping farmers, mainly smallholders, to meet the required food safety and international SPS standards. Though the main targets of the CocoaSafe training program are cocoa farmers, other stakeholders such as agro dealers, cocoa processors and collectors, cocoa exporters, extension services staffs and others responsible for the research and development in cocoa are also involved in the initiative. The CocoaSafe program has conducted several trainings to create Master Facilitators (MF) from several provinces in Indonesia.  Once being trained, MF will cascade their knowledge and skills to Residential Facilitators, who will establish field schools for farmers in their respective regions. Trainings of Facilitator (ToF) participants come from lead farmers from cooperatives, local extension staffs, agro dealers, agro processors and traders. About 20 Master Facilitators and 300 Facilitators in Indonesia alone have been trained and are currently working in several geographies.

For decades, CropLife Indonesia has conducted trainings for various stakeholders through the support, funding, and technical expertise of CropLife Asia and CropLife International. Taking part as a knowledge partner, CropLife Indonesia provided trainings (ToF) to 65 facilitators from various residencies in West Sumatra such as Padang Pariaman, West Pasaman, Lima Puluh Kota and Payalumbuh.

These trainings were focusing on vital aspects related to food safety, including Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and Responsible and Judicious Use of Pesticides. The trainings for Agro-dealers were found highly relevant and necessary as an important source of providing critical knowledge and advice to farmers, particularly on pest and disease management.

CropLife Indonesia continues to support this multi-stakeholder initiative in cocoa as a part of its strategy to support Indonesia’s strong and resilient food and agribusiness sector.