"The reference price of cocoa beans for October 2011 shipment is US$2,979 per ton so the rate of export tax is set at 10 percent in accordance with the rule," Director General of Foreign Trade at the Trade Ministry Deddy Saleh said here on Wednesday.
Under the Finance Minister`s Regulation No. 128/2011, the reference price of cocoa beans is set based on the average international price at the New York Board of Trade (NYBOT).
According to the government, the imposition of export tax on cocoa beans since April 2010 is aimed at encouraging the growth of domestic cocoa bean processing industry as well as at increasing the export of processed cocoa to give added value to the commodity.
The policy was taken on consideration that Indonesia as the world`s third largest cocoa producer still exported a great deal of unprocessed cocoa.
Deddy said earlier the policy had begun to have an impact on increased activity of the domestic cocoa processing industry.
In addition, it also had contributed significantly to the export of processed cocoa as could be seen from exports in the first five months of 2011, he said.
Data from the Trade Ministry show the country`s processed cocoa exports in the five months through May 2011 surged 103.4 percent to 42.7 thousand tons from 21 thousand tons in the same period last year.
The processed cocoa exports in the January-May 2011 period contributed US$167.5 million to the country`s foreign exchange coffers, a 60 percent increase compared to US$104 million in the same period a year earlier.(*)
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Editor: Jafar M Sidik
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
