This has led to the November export benchmark price (HPE) for cocoa beans declining to US$3,211 per metric ton, or down US$96 compared to the previous month, director general of foreign trade at the ministry, Budi Santoso, said.
"The decline in reference prices and HPE for cocoa beans was influenced by a decline in cocoa bean stocks at ports in the United States to the lowest level in the last four months," he informed in a written statement released in Jakarta on Wednesday.
Santoso said that the price reduction has had no impact on the export duty (BK) for cocoa beans, which remains at 15 percent, in accordance with Column 4 of Appendix Letter B of the Minister of Finance's Regulation Number 39/PMK/0.10/2022 jo. Number 71 of 2023.
Meanwhile, the HPE of leather products for November has not changed from the previous month, while the HPE of wood products has increased for several types of wood, namely veneer from natural forests and plantations, wooden sheets for packing boxes, and chipwood in the form of chips or fragments.
An increase in HPE has also been recorded for sawn wood with a cross-sectional area of 1 thousand square millimeters to 4 thousand square millimeters from meranti, merbau, and other types of teak, as well as from acacia and balsa plantation forests. Meanwhile, the HPE of sawn wood of the sengon type with a cross-sectional area of 1 thousand square millimeters to 4 thousand square millimeters has decreased.
The determination of HPE for cocoa beans, leather products, and wood products has been laid down in the Decree of the Minister of Trade Number 1830 of 2023 concerning Export Benchmark Prices and Reference Prices for Agricultural and Forestry Products Subject to Export Duties.
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Translator: Maria Cicilia, Cindy Frishanti Octavia
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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