Cocoa Plantation: A Hidden Gem in the West Nusa Tenggara
Let us admitted, who doesn't love chocolate?. I think it has been everyone's dream to own their own chocolate factory. I am one of the luckiest person who happen to have a chance to work closely with this commodity. Cocoa, a raw, and let us assume it as a rough diamond before it turns into chocolate.
Welcome to Kampung Coklat Senara. This Chocolate Village is located in Genggalang Village, Gangga Sub-district of District of Lombok Utara (KLU). In this village, the communities rely their income on agricultural, farming, and tourism sectors. Beside cocoa, there are also vanilla beans, goat milk, honey, and waterfalls that become strategic commodities of this village. Only few people know that the KLU itself is the highest producer of cocoa bean in the Province of West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), as accordance to the data from the Central Bureau of Statistic (BPS). The District Government of KLU launched and promoted the Sub-Village of Senara of Geggalang Village as Chocolate Village in 2017.
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| The sign board in front of the Chocolate Centre of Senara |
The launching of this village is based on the fact that there are 100 hectare (1 hectare = 2,4 acre) of cocoa plantation that are managed by the community farmers for more than 20 years. Cocoa farming has been the main livelihood income source for the village community. Each farmer in this village has at least 0,5 hectare to 7 hectare of cocoa plantation. The plantation is being managed through farmers group. Due to NTB 2018 earthquake, only 20 out of 36 cocoa farmers that are still cultivating their cocoa plantation.
When you entering the gate, you will find a lot of cocoa trees with wise message hanging in these trees. There are also some gazebo and souvenir shop, where you can sit, enjoy drinking a hot chocolate while shopping with various chocolate products. Mr Pardan, Head of Bunga Mekar Cocoa Farmer Group, manages the place and will take you on a De Tour in site. It might not as modern as Kampung Coklat Blitar (https://www.kampungcoklat.com/profile/) but surely it is a great education and attractive place to visit in Lombok.
Cocoa indeed is part of the strategic commodity of the District Government of KLU beside: cor, coffee, chicken egg, horticulture vegetables, and honey. Yet their focus currently is set on the developing and expanding the production of honey by cooperating with private health companies, such as: Nutrima, PT Lampung Sejahtera, PT Farmasi Fajr Malaysia, and PT Astra Ventura. The cocoa farmers group itself has limited access to target marketing of these cocoa products, only for local based consume of communities and industry in the district, and Mataram City.
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| The Senara Chocolate Processing Centre |
In this district there are thousands hectare of cocoa land that can produce nearly 500-600 kg of cocoa beans per hectare/year, or around 24 thousand ton per year. The average monthly gross income that receive by the farmer from the selling of the raw cocoa beans is around 3 to 4 million IDR (1 dollar = 14,356 IDR).
The farmer group such as Bunga Mekar that led by Mr Pardan, are still struggling to promote and their local cocoa industry and improving their production. Everyday, the village of Senara Chocolate Centre produces 3,5 kg of chocolate powder, 1,8 kg of fat chocolate, and 2 kg of variant processed chocolate candies. The chocolate products mix with other commodities around areas, such as: coffee and ginger.
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| Mr Pardan, Head of Cocoa Farmer Bunga Mekar |
The farmers group's effort in developing the chocolate industry attracts government attention and received their supports through several stimulant programs, such as: comparative study to cocoa plantation in Blitar, East Java; construction of sign board to the village; provision of equipment to process, roast, blend, and filter the cocoa beans into chocolate powder (the equipments were received on September 2018 by the Ministry of Villages, Disadvantage Regions and Transmigration/Kemendes PDTT), and; provision of 3 hectare of land for construction of Chocolate Processing Centre by the Ministry of Agriculture. Until now, there are two government bureau that are continuously providing their support, include: the Bureau of Agriculture and Food Security, and Bureau of Industry and Commerce.
This Chocolate Centre is scheduled to re-open on August or September 2019, after completing its renovation post earthquake. I would definitely recommend to bring cash, as it is located remotely and you will get temp to swap all the products here. The price for chocolate or cocoa powder is around 30k IDR (original), to 60k IDR (combine with coffee, or ginger), while the candy is around 25k IDR to 30k IDR per box with original, combination of peanut, and fruit flavours. For more information, please contact Mr Pardan in +6282341902245.
