REPUBLIKA, JAKARTA -- By. Otniel Tamindael

JAKARTA -- The West Sulawesi province on the island of Sulawesi is one of the largest cocoa producing centers in Indonesia, which is the world's third largest cocoa producer, after the Ivory Coast and Ghana.

In the late 1980s, considerable efforts were directed at growing cacao in Sulawesi island, which lifted the financial fortunes of its farmers significantly over the next few decades.

West Sulawesi Governor Anwar Adnan Saleh, in the provincial city of Mamuju, said he remains optimistic that Indonesia will become the world's largest cocoa producer and exporter in the future.

Speaking to the media in Mamuju on Monday, the governor said the West Sulawesi provincial administration has designated a 13-hectare plot of land for the construction of an industrial vocational institute for the cocoa industry.

"The school will be built in the Kalukku sub-district as an education facility for students and will expand their overall understanding of cacao farming. That will, hopefully, improve the commodity's production," the governor stated on Monday.

He pointed out that the school will be equipped with a cocoa processing plant, teachers, a laboratory, a dormitory for female students and other related facilities.

"The development of a vocational institute for the cocoa industry in West Sulawesi is part of the local government's commitment to turn the province into a hub for cacao production," Anwar added.

The governor said that since cocoa from West Sulawesi is considered high-grade compared with cocoa from other regions, the addition of a vocational institute is expected to increase the interest of local residents in cacao plants as a source of economic growth and welfare.

According to him, the local government would take about four years to complete the school, whose construction had already begun.

Meanwhile, the head of the West Sulawesi Plantation Service, Supriyatno, said around 60 thousand cacao farmers in the province have been trained to develop and increase the commodity's output.

He pointed out that the West Sulawesi provincial administration had cooperated with PT Nestle to train farmers and provide agricultural expertise so that they could master the techniques of cacao cultivation to increase the quality and quantity of their output.

According to him, the training is part of a cacao farmers' empowerment program in West Sulawesi, which aims to develop cacao plantations in the province.

Supriyatno expressed hope that the training imparted to farmers would increase cocoa bean production in West Sulawesi to one ton per hectare.

About 192 thousand hectares of arable land is used to cultivate cocoa and about 101 thousand tons of output is produced per year in West Sulawesi.

To increase output, the provincial administration also plans to build a cocoa-based economic zone to provide a market for the output of cocoa beans from the province, Supriyatno said.

He added that the cocoa-based economic zone would help the marketing of cocoa beans and offer higher prices to the farmers.

He noted that cacao is a competitive commodity as local prices follow global market prices.

Therefore, it is important to ensure production of high-grade cocoa beans, which command higher prices, he added.

"We need regular production, while maintaining the land's fertility at the same time," he noted.

He said the regional administration would recruit experts and professional managers to implement the cocoa-based economic zone.

He believed that cocoa bean farmers would receive better prices if the economic zone is created.

In addition, Suhaedi, the head of the Bank Indonesia (BI) representative office in eastern Indonesia covering Sulawesi, Maluku and Papua, said recently in Makassar, South Sulawesi, that BI would carry out a pioneering project aimed at developing a cocoa industry cluster in Mamuju, a provincial city in West Sulawesi.

"The industry cluster is intended to serve as a pilot project under a program to exploit the province's available potential," Suhaedi noted, adding that the district administration and plantation services would implement the project.

"If the pilot project is feasible, banks could be asked to provide the finance," he added.

He said he did not agree with the general perception that banks are reluctant to invest in the plantation sector in Indonesia.

Banks will be eager to provide credit for feasible business projects that are implemented properly, he noted.

If the pilot project could increase business volumes, then banks and the farmers would gain, he added.

"The farmers would prosper and the banks would have bigger clients," he said.

Sulawesi accounts for about 75 percent of total cocoa output and the overseas sales (exports) of the commodity from the Southeast Asian nation.

The West Sulawesi governor said the province would continue to improve its cocoa production as cocoa is an important national commodity for increasing national economic growth.

He said cocoa production would be included in the 18 categories of 'superior' commodities targeted for increasing national economic growth.

"Earlier, the central government did not include cocoa in the 18 categories of high-quality agricultural products that were expected to boost national economic growth,' Anwar pointed out.

But he added that the West Sulawesi provincial government would maintain cocoa development as it remains an important commodity for Indonesia.

The governor noted that about 25 provinces are expected to implant the Indonesian government's national program for the revitalization of the cocoa industry, known as Gernas Pro Kakao.

Meanwhile, Deputy Agriculture Minister Rusman Heriawan, during his visit to Mamuju in early November, noted that Indonesia currently has 1.7 million hectares under cocoa plantation, which produce about 712 thousand tons of cocoa beans per year.

If cocoa production continues to develop, Indonesia's ambition of becoming the world's largest cocoa-producing country could be realized, he added.

Therefore, he called on all cocoa producing areas in Indonesia, particularly on Sulawesi island, to take every effort to increase production.

"West Sulawesi has around 192 thousand hectares under cocoa plantation and produces 101 thousand tons of output per year. That should continue to increase," Rusman stated.

He expressed hope that West Sulawesi would support the government's goal of making Indonesia the largest cocoa producing country in the world.

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