REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, BOGOR -- The Indonesian Agronomy Association (Peragi) said it is set to make Indonesia the world's largest producer of cacao.

"Agronomy would improve the productivity of the plant by growing high yield seed varieties and innovations," general chairman of the association Muhammad Syakir said.

Modification of the environment through agronomic approach is necessary to increase productivity, Syakir said after the installation of the executive board of the association at the Research and Development Center for Plantation Development here on Friday.

Currently Indonesia is the third largest producer of cacao beans after the Ivory Coast and Ghana in Africa.

Syakir said agronomic approach is necessary to improve productivity and sustain competitiveness.

Vice President Jusus Kalla has said that in five year Indonesia's cacao industry should grow and the country should become the world's largest producer of cacao.

For that purpose the country needs to double its productivity to a ton of beans per hectare a year, Jusuf Kalla said.

The country currently has approximately 1.5 million hectares of cocoa plantations with production estimated at 400,000 tons in 2015, as against the Ivory Coast's 1,750,000 tons and Ghana's 696,000 tons.

The production shrank from a peak of 620,000 tons in 2006, according to the Indonesian Cocoa Association (Askindo).

The island of Sulawesi accounts for more than two-thirds of country's cocoa production.

While production is on the decline , the domestic demand is rising from processing industry prompting the government to slap high tax on cacao beans.

The immediate result was a shift from bean exports to exports of intermediate products, such as cocoa butter and cocoa powder.

Bean exports fell from 439,000 tons in 2009 to 125,000 tons in 2013, Askindo said.

Following investment from companies such as global food giant Cargill, Singapore-based JB Cocoa and the world's biggest chocolate maker, Barry Callebaut, the country's cocoa grinding capacity is estimated to reach 600,000 tons by the end of 2014, up from 324,000 tons in 2013.

Grinding capacity is expected to exceed 1 million tons in 2016 that the country would likely be dependent much on import for cacao beans, Askindo said.

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