JAKARTA: Indonesia’s Trade Ministry has set duty on cocoa bean exports for May 2011 shipment at 10 per cent, down five per cent from a month earlier, Indonesia’s Antara news agency reported.
“The reference price of cocoa for May 2011 is US$3,088.20 per metric tonne, down from US$3,515.11 per metric tonne in April,” Director General of Foreign Trade at the Trade Ministry Deddy Saleh said.
Meanwhile, the floor price of cocoa exports has been set at US$2,786 per metric tonne.
The duty on cocoa bean exports for May 2011 shipment falls following a decline in global cocoa bean prices which reached less than US$3,500 per metric tonne from the middle of March to April.
Since April 1 last year, the government has imposed progressive duty on cocoa bean exports by observing global cocoa bean prices.
Under the finance minister’s regulation on export goods subject to export duties and tariffs, duty on cocoa bean exports uses the reference price based on average CIF price of New York Board of Trade in the previous month.
Indonesia is one of the world’s biggest cocoa bean producers.
Data from the Trade Ministry show Indonesia’s cocoa bean exports in the January-November 2010 period rose to US$1.38 billion from US$1.17 billion in the same period a year ago. —Bernama