Indonesia: Cocoa Exports in May below Expectations

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta:The Indonesian Cocoa Association (Askindo) Chairman, Zulhefi Sikumbang estimated that cocoa exports in May was not in line with expectations. “The export volume this month is only about 50-60 thousand tons,” he said, yesterday.
In fact, these exports had been added to the cocoa that was to be sent in April. During that month, exporters had withheld the shipment of around 30-40 tons of cocoa overseas due to the high export duty, which was up to 15 percent.
It was also based on the anticipation that the export duty would drop to 10 percent in May, that the businessmen withheld the cocoa shipment. Unfortunately, the continuous rain this month resulted in lower cocoa production, only around 10-20 tons compared to the usual 40-50 tons per month during the harvest period.
Zulhefi hoped cocoa production will peak in the next harvest period, which is around September. But, that will not raise total exports this year and exceed last year’s production, given that the amount is down to 25-30 percent.
Despite the decline in export volume, the value of the cocoa commodity itself was not affected. Due to a shortage in the world’s cocoa supply, the price of Indonesian cocoa matches the African cocoa premium price. Usually, African cocoa is US$150 higher at the London bourse compared to Indonesian cocoa at the New York bourse.
Zulhefi said that lower export volumes also demonstrates that the export duty does not automatically cause cocoa businessmen to shift their products to meet industrial demand over exports. A lower export volume is triggered by a drop in national cocoa production.