Davomas to boost production by 40%

JAKARTA (The Jakarta Post) : PT Davomas Abadi, the biggest cocoa butter and cake producer in Indonesia, is set to increase its production by 40 percent at the end of this month to meet rising global demand.

Davomas has established two new production lines in addition to its seven existing ones at its factory in Tangerang, west of Jakarta, to boost its production from 100,000 tons to 140,000 tons per year.

"The overseas demand is increasing and our current production can no longer satisfy demand," director Suhanih told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

Davomas, which has a of 3.5 percent share of the global market, exports all of its output to the European and United States markets for chocolate production.

The investment of US$50 million on the new production lines was funded by $150 million in proceeds from the sale of bonds on the Singapore Stock Exchange last year. The remainder of the proceed was used to repay debt and to strengthen the company's working capital.

Indonesia is the third largest cocoa-bean producer after Ivory Coast and Ghana.