Indonesian cocoa output threatened

[InkAddict]

http://visz.rsoe.hu/alertmap

Indonesia's cocoa output will fall below 500,000 tonnes this year as a deadly fungal disease spreads in the main producing island, the head of the country's cocoa producers' body said.. The world's third-largest cocoa producer had hoped to produce 570,000 tonnes this year but the disease's spread has seen it steadily trim this forecast. "We haven't seen the peak season during the main crop in Sulawesi this year. I've revised down output estimates. The latest number will be 480,000 to 490,000 tonnes," said Halim Razak, chairman of the Indonesian Cocoa Association (Askindo). In May Mr Razak had said the country could produce 520,000 tonnes, equivalent to what it produced in 2007. More than 60 per cent of cocoa plantations in Indonesia's main growing island of Sulawesi have been infected with vascular-streak dieback (VSD), which threatens output and affects quality, Mr Razak said. The disease attacks leaves, branches and trunks and was spreading rapidly in the provinces of South, Central and Southeast Sulawesi, which account for 75 per cent of Indonesia's cocoa output.

"I believe more than 60 per cent of plantations in Sulawesi have been affected by the VSD. This is scary. Definitely output will be below 500,000 tonnes this year," he said. The main crop in Sulawesi started in March and normally reaches its peak in May or June but dealers said daily arrivals have been flat since the start of the harvest. Cocoa plantations in Sulawesi cover 800,000 hectares, and vascular-streak dieback was also spreading on the other growing islands of Java and Sumatra. Persistent rains have accelerated the spread of the disease. "We've been hearing a lot more of the VSD and the quality has not been very good," said a dealer in Singapore. "We have always not been very optimistic of the Indonesian crop. They might have to cut off a fair amount of the plants," he added. The VSD was another blow for the cocoa industry in Indonesia, which has been battling another disease, cocoa pod borer, since the 1980s. Pod borer is worm-like pest which feeds on cocoa beans.



What good is smooth skin when the oral thrill of cheap chocolate is gone??? The thing is, the link, a website out of Hungary, has misplaced Indonesia somewhere over the English channel???????

[whistle]

1. More speculator price hikes coming along with windfall profits

[Speck Tater]

2. times 14.2.84 miniplenty malquoted chocolate rectify

"As short a time ago as February, the Ministry of Plenty had issued a promise (a 'categorical pledge' were the official words) that there would be no reduction of the chocolate ration during 1984. Actually, as Winston was aware, the chocolate ration was to be reduced from thirty grammes to twenty at the end of the present week. All that was needed was to substitute for the original promise a warning that it would probably be necessary to reduce the ration at some time in April."

[InkAddict]

3. Who could have imagined?

Indonesia warned "Bugs to attack chocolate plants." Her shey-a butter group takes responsibility.