Krakakoa: Indonesia’s Best Chocolate Factory
Indonesia is the world’s third-largest producer of cocoa beans. But most of those beans are exported and you’ll be hard-pressed to find any good-quality chocolates manufactured in the country. But with rising incomes, Indonesians have acquired a taste for chocolates.
Through the years, cocoa has gained its economic importance due to the fact it’s the base ingredient of the world’s most favorite guilty pleasure – chocolate. In Indonesia, it’s considered as one of the most agricultural products for export. In fact, the Indonesian cocoa market has expanded, thanks to the smallholder farmers’ participation in the last 25 years.
Currently, the country has estimated 1.5 million hectares of cocoa fields. Most of these can be found in the following areas:
- Sulawesi
- North Sumatra
- East Kalimantan
- Papua
- West Java
As such, the production of cocoa in Indonesia chocolate factory is also booming. In 2013, the national production of cocoa clocked at 575,000 tons, forming Indonesia’s 4th largest foreign earning. But despite this promising stats, there are issues Indonesia needs to address including lack of knowledge in proper plantation management and fighting diseases.
How We Make a Difference
Krakakoa is a farmer-to-bar chocolate company that strives to improve the quality of life of cocoa farmers in Indonesia. We also aim to promote sustainability of cocoa farming by engaging with smallholder cocoa farmers, helping them to increase quantity and quality of their cocoa harvest.
Krakakoa has recently partnered with SwissContact to provide full training to 1,000 farmers residing in border areas and national parks of Lampung, Sumatra and West Sulawesi. The training program involves organic farming techniques, fermentation, disease management, and conservation, as well as giving farmers the tools they need for cocoa farming and processing.
As a result, high-quality fermented cocoa beans at more competitive prices. This gives the farmers price security and higher incentive that they would be able to use in improving cocoa bean quality rather than illegally intruding in national parks.
As of late, Krakakoa has helped a total of 250 farmers improve their lives through the livelihood program and by selling their harvest at a premium price. Given the proper knowledge and the right tools, the farmers are now more than ready to meet the massive demand for high-quality cocoa worldwide.
Our Indonesia chocolate factory focuses not only on making top-quality cocoa beans for export, but also on empowering smallholder farmers so they’d be able to improve and increase cocoa harvest on their own. We also extend our efforts to conserve the environment, cultivating the land that produces good quality cocoa that the world loves.
Today, we at Krakakoa continue our journey to helping farmers be capable of producing high -quality cocoa beans for the world to enjoy. This year and the years to come, we aim to help thousands of farmers build a steady income so they’d be able to provide a better life for their families and seek new opportunities along the way.
Along the way, Krakakoa has won alot of international awards and recognition from well-known organisations. Make sure to take a look at our awards & press section.