JAKARTA. The Swiss-based giant chocolate company Callebaut announced to establish a new factory in Gresik, East Java. The new factory will be established under a coorporation between Callebaut and PT Garuda Food.

Under the partnership scheme, Callebaut will set production facilites for the factory, which has on capacity of a 10,000 ton of chocolate per year, on the area of 4,000 meter square owned by PT Garuda Food. Previously, Callebaut had established cacao processing factories in Bandung (West Java) and Makassar (South Sulawesi).

During the initial phase of operational, the three-store factory may absorb 50 workforces. “The factory in Gresik will be the milestone to strengthen our position in Asia-Pacific,” said Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Barry Callebaut Antoine de Saint-Affrique.

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According to Antoine, Indonesia has a potential market with a 260 million of huge population. In addition to the population, Indonesia is the third largest cacao producer in the world in 2015 with a 1 million ton of production.

The chocolate produced by the new factory will supply chocolate ingredients for Garuda Food biscuit. “The new factory will enhance efficiency and increase the quality of Garuda Food’s biscuit products,” said Head of Corporate of Communication of PT Garuda Food Dian Astriani.

However, Dian refused to specify the detail of Garuda Food needs for chocolate per year. She only mentioned that Garuda Food also obtains chocolate supplies from other suppliers.

Under the partnership scheme between Callebaut-Garuda Food, the Swiss company invests US$ 10 million to establish a chocolate factory,which has a 10,000 ton of production capacity. Aside of the factory, the investment also includes the establishment od research and development (R&D). Under the tight competition in biscuit competition, Garuda Food needs a scheme of R&D partnership to increase its production quality.

CEO of Garuda Food Hardianto Atmadja said that the utilization of high-grade chocolate with international standard will support Garuda Food in developing its product quality.

Callebaut started its business expansion in South East Asia in 1997 by establishing its first chocolate factory in Singapore. To date, Callebaut just operated five chocolate factories in China, India, Japan, Indonesia, and Singapore.

In Asia, Callebaut has three cocoa beans processing factories, two of them are in Indonesia (Bandung and Makassar), and another one in Malaysia. In addition to the cocoa beans processing factories, Callebaut also has a mixture of chocolate and processed cacao in Malaysia. (Translator: Muhammad Farid)