Switzerland, Belgium to be invited to set up chocolate plants in RI

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesia will invite Switzerland and Belgium to set up chocolate producing plants in the country which is known as one of the world`s biggest cocoa producers, a cabinet minister said.

"I will invite world-class producers from Switzerland and Belgium to invest in Indonesia. We are already to establish contacts with them. I will ask my colleagues (in the cabinet) to grant them facilities so that they can develop a chocolate industry in Indonesia," Industry Minister Fahmi Idris said here on Friday.

He said cocoa-based industries could be built at upstream as well as downstream level because the country had huge resources of the raw materials.

Like in the crude palm oil industry, the government would also issue regulations to encourage the building of downstream cocoa-based industries, he said.

He said the government hoped top chocolate producers in the world would invest in Indonesia. "We are seeking cooperation. They will maintain their brands but have to build plants here," he said.

He said the chocolate industry had not yet developed properly in Indonesia although some local brands such as "Silver Queen" had already been in circulation in the country.

"We wish to develop an industry with a complete and integrated network like the CPO industry," he said.

He said because Indonesia wished to build a chocolate industry it had refused to cooperate with a chocolate association from the European Union (Coabisco) because they only wished to buy cocoa beans from Indonesia.

"They were prepared to train farmers in the raising good cocoa plants, which they would buy later on. I did not agree with their proposal. I want them to train the local farmers and set up a factory here," he said.

Indonesia has so far been the world`s third biggest producer of cocoa beans after Ivory Coast and Ghana with its production reaching around 400,000 tons a year. Around 70 percent of the production is exported.

The minister said the government would also support the development of downstream coffee industries and local coffee trademarks because the country was also one of the world`s biggest coffee producers.