Sulawesi
A cacao growing region in Indonesia.
The island producing the majority of Indonesia's cocoa, and the clearest documented case of a smallholder boom followed by a yield collapse — from around 750 kg per hectare in the 1980s to under 400 over the following decades, with the cocoa pod borer as the principal named cause.
- Country
- Indonesia
- Also known as
- Sulawesi, Celebes, South Sulawesi cocoa, Indonesian cocoa, cocoa pod borer
- Flavour families
- earthy, nutty
Terroir
Humid lowland and hill country across the island's several peninsulas, planted largely in full sun on land converted within living memory. The cocoa boom here was a migration event as much as an agricultural one, and the planting pattern reflects a rapid frontier expansion rather than an established tree-crop landscape.
Flavour character
Indonesian cocoa is generally characterised in the trade as low in acidity and aroma with an earthy, smoky direction, which is substantially a consequence of unfermented or under-fermented post-harvest practice rather than of genetics or place.
Other regions in Indonesia
Related
Part of
- IndonesiaThe island producing the majority of Indonesia's cocoa, and the clearest documented case of a smallholder boom followed by a yield collapse — from around 750 kg per hectare in the 1980s to under 400 over the following decades, with the cocoa pod borer as the principal named cause.
Varieties planted here
- ForasteroDocumented as planted in this region, though plantings within a region are rarely uniform and material is frequently mixed. Sulawesi — The island producing the majority of Indonesia's cocoa, and the clearest documented case of a smallholder boom followed by a yield collapse — from around 750 kg per hectare in the 1980s to under 400 over the following decades, with the cocoa pod borer as the principal named cause..
- TrinitarioDocumented as planted in this region, though plantings within a region are rarely uniform and material is frequently mixed. Sulawesi — The island producing the majority of Indonesia's cocoa, and the clearest documented case of a smallholder boom followed by a yield collapse — from around 750 kg per hectare in the 1980s to under 400 over the following decades, with the cocoa pod borer as the principal named cause..
History and culture
- Cacao in IndonesiaWhere the expansion happened, and still the production centre.
Pests and diseases
- Vascular streak diebackWhere the symptom change from 2004 was most closely documented, and a major producing region.
Sources
- The economics of pest and production management in small-holder cocoa: lessons from Sulawesi — Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies, 2009(citation identity confirmed; passage not re-read)
- ChocolateHQ editorial synthesis — ChocolateHQ(citation identity confirmed; passage not re-read)