Cocoa has been the main income source for over half a million smallholders in Sulawesi, Indonesia. With the increasing need for cocoa worldwide, opportunities and challenges are facing the industry. Aimed at improving cocoa farmers’ lives as well as cultivating the next generation’s interests in cocoa, Mars Chocolate recently held a Cocoa Agri-business contest at vocational schools in Luwu, North Luwu and East Luwu,
In the farmers’ eyes, a beautiful cocoa tree is the one with high yield. The lady in the picture who is happily harvesting her beautiful cocoa tree, her name is Astuty. With over 13-year experience of growing cacao, she carefully takes care of her cocoa farm of 2 hectors. But back to 3 years ago, those cocoa trees caused her sleepless nights.
3 years
Since 2011, Mars Chocolate has partnered with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), a specialized agency of the United Nations, and the government of Indonesia to develop the Cocoa Development Center model in Sulawesi. IFAD has recently developed a video on our efforts here, and they’ve released a special version just in time for Easter.
In the IFAD video, you’ll meet Ahmad Darise,
A few weeks ago, we celebrated the start of export shipments of certified sustainable cocoa butter and cocoa powder from our cocoa bean processing factory in Makassar, South Sulawesi in Indonesia.
It marks a new phase of our sustainability efforts in that country. In addition to expanding our cocoa grinding factory and doubling the size of our office in Makassar, we are also investing
The Regional Cocoa Breeders Group is a collaboration of regional Asia/Pacific cocoa breeders in Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Papua New Guinea and India. The group meets to address improving planting materials for cocoa farmers. A majority of collaborators are the national cocoa research institutes or universities responsible for cocoa research in each region.
The Regional Cocoa Breeders Group first met in Singapore in 2004,
The last two days brought together a huge range of government officials, private companies and civil society groups for the biannual partners meeting of the World Cocoa Foundation in San Francisco. This meeting focused on emerging cocoa origins, and Asia was a focus for many attendees. Particularly interesting was a presentation by Swisscontact’s Manfred Boer on their 21 month, $7 million dollar PEKA Project
