Revival of Ransiki Chocolate

JOHANES GALUH BIMANTARA

Pipiltin Cocoa workers pack 72 percent Ransiki chocolate bars, Thursday (14/10/2021), in Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta. The chocolate is made from cocoa beans from the Ebier Suth Cokran Cooperative, Ransiki, South Manokwari, West Papua.

In a mall in the heart of Jakarta, chocolate bars are sold in elegant and attractive packaging. Who would have thought that the chocolate bars are made from cocoa beans harvested from a remote area in West Papua?

The chocolate produced by Pipiltin Cocoa carries the word Ransiki, the name of the district in South Manokwari regency, Papua, where the raw chocolate is grown and processed. The Ransiki chocolate is not only sold in Jakarta but also exported to Switzerland and France.

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The high-quality cocoa beans are harvested from a 140 hectare cocoa plantation. It is not a multinational company that manages the plantation but a cooperative called Ebier Suth.

"Ransiki chocolate is one of the best quality chocolates," said the chief coordinator of the Ebier Suth cooperative, Abdul Rochim Arkan Sawa Semariai.

Empowering local residents

The cocoa is cultivated by the skilled hands of workers, most of whom are native to West Papua. Every morning, trucks pick up workers from the center of South Manokwari regency and take them to the cocoa plantation.

The majority of the workers are women, and most harvest the cocoa. One of them is Deli Jofari,42, or Mama Deli, who harvests cocoa from trees as tall as 5 meters.

"The target is to harvest 40 kilograms [of undried cocoa beans per day], or at least 20 kg when the production is low," said Mama Deli at the end of April 2021.

PT Cokran went bankrupt in 2006. Its contract workers, such as Deli, looked for other jobs.

Mama Deli is quite familiar with the cocoa plantations there because before working at the Ebier Suth cooperative, she worked for PT Coklat Ransiki (Cokran) for a dozen years until the early 2000s. PT Cokran went bankrupt in 2006. Its contract workers, such as Deli, looked for other jobs.

After not operating for several years, former employees of PT Cokran and the government of South Manokwari regency worked together to reopen the company’s cocoa plantations in the hope of restoring the glory of Ransiki's original chocolate. To make it more flexible, the management decided to form a cooperative to run the plantation.

KOMPAS/HARRY SUSILO

Ebier Suth Cooperative workers harvest cocoa pods from a garden in Ransiki District, South Manokwari Regency, West Papua, Tuesday (20/4/2021). After harvesting, Ransiki cocoa beans will be processed and sent to a number of chocolate producers both domestically and internationally.

The Ebier Suth cooperative was founded in 2017. The majority of its workers are former employees of PT Cokran. The cooperative was named "Ebier Suth", a phrase taken from the language of the Sougb tribe of South Manokwari, that means "to revive".

According to Abdul Rochim Arkan, the cooperative currently employs 150 people, 80 of whom work in the plantation and the rest in factories, administration and other activities. As many as 99 percent of the employees are native Papuans.

Before its closure, PT Cokran was able to supply 100 tons of dry beans per month, while Ebier Suth only produces 4 tons of dry beans per month.

The cooperative's capacity to run the plantations is still low compared to the scale of the former operations of PT Cokran. The cooperative is only able to manage 140 hectares of the 1,668 hectares of cocoa plantations left behind by PT Cokran. Before its closure, PT Cokran was able to supply 100 tons of dry beans per month, while Ebier Suth only produces 4 tons of dry beans per month.

Maintaining quality

Although productivity is not as high as it used to be, the Ebier Suth cooperative is disciplined in maintaining the quality and taste of the cocoa beans. The seeds to be planted are taken from old trees. “We are worried there will be seeds from outside. We don’t want them to disturb the cocoa here," said Abdul Rochim.

KOMPAS/HARRY SUSILO

PWorkers dry fermented cocoa beans in the courtyard of the Ebier Suth Cooperative office, in Ransiki, South Manokwari Regency, West Papua, (20/4/2021). Ransiki cocoa processed by the Ebier Suth Cooperative is supplied to a number of domestic and foreign chocolate producers.

He said chemical fertilizers were not used in cocoa plantations, either in the era of PT Cokran or of the Ebier Suth cooperative. The soil fertility is supported by the cocoa trees themselves. A natural process produces the quality organic products, which are later made into high quality chocolate.

The commitment made by Ebier Suth to maintain the quality of its cocoa beans attracted the attention of Biji Kakao Trading Ltd, a specialist in distributing quality cocoa from a number of regions in the country to producers of ready-to-consume chocolate in a number of countries. Through Biji Kakao Trading, the cocoa beans produced by Ebier Suth are sold to global chocolate makers in Switzerland and France, even though the cooperative is only 3.5 years old.

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Pipiltin Cocoa, which specially produces chocolate made of diverse Indonesian cocoa origins, also uses the Ransiki cocoa beans to produce chocolate bars that are sold in its outlets, including at the Grand Indonesia Mall in Central Jakarta.

According to one of the founders of Pipiltin Cocoa, Irvan Helmi, the savory notes of Ransiki chocolate cannot be found in other regions of Indonesia. "That's specifically Ransiki," said Irvan.

From 2017 to February 2021, the Ebier Suth cooperative shipped 234.2 tons of dry cocoa beans to customers, including Pipiltin Cocoa, with total incomes of Rp 7.18 billion.

The West Papua Governor Dominggus Mandacan said the cocoa produced in the “non-deforestation area” had been designated as one of the flagship commodities of West Papua. The West Papua administration has also helped find markets for the local cocoa and improve supply chains and productivity.

KOMPAS/JOHANES GALUH BIMANTARA

72 percent Ransiki chocolate bar produced by Pipiltin Cocoa, Thursday (14/10/2021), in Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta. The chocolate is made from cocoa beans from the Ebier Suth Cokran Cooperative, Ransiki, South Manokwari, West Papua.

Ebier Suth still has a long way to go. However, the cooperative's efforts in empowering local residents and maintaining the quality of cocoa are on the right track to encourage the revival of Ransiki chocolate.

(This article was translated by Hendarsyah Tarmizi)