Cocoa Exports From Indonesia Advance 60% in August

By Yoga Rusmana

Sept. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Cocoa bean exports from Indonesia’s Sulawesi island, the nation’s main growing region, surged 60 percent in August as farmers sold stockpiles to benefit from a gain in prices and raise funds ahead of a Muslim festival.

Shipments from South and Central Sulawesi provinces, which account for about four-fifths of Indonesia’s output, advanced to 47,527 metric tons last month compared with 29,725 tons in July, according to data today from the Indonesian Cocoa Association. Sales were 25,261 tons in August last year.

Increased shipments from the world’s third-biggest grower may help to arrest this year’s 9 percent gain in the price of the chocolate ingredient, which has risen on concern that global demand will exceed supply. Indonesia, with the world’s largest Muslim population, will mark Eid al-Fitr on Sept. 21.

“Now is the right time to sell beans as the price is high,” Herman Agan, the head of the association’s Central Sulawesi branch, said by phone from Palu. “Farmers need money to buy food and new clothes for the festival.”

Cocoa for December delivery slipped 0.5 percent to $2,923 a ton on ICE Futures U.S. in New York yesterday. Ivory Coast is the world’s top producer, with Ghana the second-biggest.

Indonesian exports in the first eight months of the year slid to 176,312 tons from 180,891 tons a year ago, the trade group said today. The country harvests most of its crop from April to July, with smaller volumes gathered until September.

Production in Indonesia may rise next year for the first time in four years as improved yields offset any setback from a lack of rain from an El Nino, Halim Razak, chairman of the association, said on July 9. Output in 2010 may gain to 500,000 tons from an estimated 480,000 tons this year.

El Ninos shift weather patterns around the world and can cause drought in the Asia-Pacific.

To contact the reporter on this story: Yoga Rusmana in Jakarta at yrusmana@bloomberg.net