Increase Competitiveness, Ministry of Industry Establishes Cocoa Industry Competency Development Center

INDUSTRY.co.id - Jakarta, the Ministry of Industry (Kemenperin) in cooperation with Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) and the Government of Batang Regency, Central Java established the Center for Competence Development of Cocoa Industry. This effort is made to improve the productivity and competitiveness of national processed cocoa products in order to be able to meet the needs and tastes of domestic and world markets.

Director General of Agro Industry Ministry of Industry, Panggah Susanto, said the cooperation is to develop cocoa processing industry in the country that will produce cocoa butter, cocoa cake, cocoa liquor and cocoa powder.

"This synergy step is also in the effort to realize the downstream cocoa processing industry in Indonesia and the development of human resource competence (HR) in it," said Panggah in Jakarta (18/08/2017).

As is known, Ground Breaking development of Cocoa Industry Competency Development Center was conducted on August 15, 2017. On the occasion also signed the cooperation agreement by the Director General of Agro Industry Kemenperin Panggah Susanto, Batang Regent, Wihaji, and Vice Rector UGM Cooperation and Alumni , Plenary.

Furthermore, Panggah explained, Kemenperin will facilitate the construction of the building area of ​​3075 m2 in Batang by equipping the machines and production equipment with a capacity of 6,000 tons per year. "We hope that the facilities and infrastructures can be utilized by UGM and other research institutions as a means of downstream research and development of cocoa commodities," he said.

In addition, according to Plenary, later this development center can also be a forum for empowerment of farmers who have been fostered so far to continue to cultivate good cocoa (well fermented bean). "For example, in the procurement of cocoa beans, UGM through its business unit has conducted partnerships with farmers covering 75 percent of the area of ​​people's garden in Central Java and East Java," said Paripurna.

Meanwhile, the Regent of Batang hoped that the Competence Development Center of Cocoa Processing Industry could open new employment opportunities for the people of Batang Regency as well as to grow new business actors in the cocoa processing industry and activate research and development activities so that the national cocoa industry is getting more advanced.

Keep in mind, cocoa is one of the main commodities and seeded plantations that play an important role as a source of state income, farmers' income sources, labor absorption, establishment of industrial growth centers, and encourage agribusiness and agro industry development.

Therefore, the Ministry of Industry has encouraged the downstream of cocoa-based industries through the provision of machinery and production equipment and the establishment of small and medium industries (IKM) in the cocoa processing sector that is expected to grow new entrepreneurs.

Until now, Indonesia is still the third largest cocoa seed producer in the world after Ivory Coast and Ghana. As one of cocoa bean producing countries, there are 20 cocoa industry companies with capacity of 800 thousand tons per year.