Cocoa Calamity

Have you been to a cocoa farm?
Have you seen how the farmers dry their cocoa beans?
Coz if you have, I guess you would think twice before eating that piece of yummy chocolate! ;)

The journey to Pidie seems like forever although it was just about 3 hours..road going up the hill was bumpy..I thought the Mat Salleh's would get sick tapi yang rasa nak muntahnya minah Aceh yg jadi our translator for the day... :p

As we needed to get as much information about the farmers and the cocoa industry in Pidie fast I hopped in the van with Pak Hamzah (a cocoa trader) and Pak Sayid (a rep from APED/UNDP). Pak Hamzah is a reputable cocoa trader in Pidie district -- probably the one and only cocoa trader in Pidie who had the capital to buy,process and sell cocoa to big exporters.

I also met with Pak Jailani a cocoa farmer who poured his heart out to us. He owns about 1 hectare of cocoa farm (about 800 cocoa plants). He works on the farm with his wife and daughter, 7 hours a day. But Pak Jailani and in fact all of the farmers in Pidie lacks the skills and techniques to produce good cocoa beans. I got a shock to see how they dry the cocoa beans -- in front/at the back of their houses/wherever possible! Kalau hujan, then hancuss...Since the cocoa's quality is not so good, they can't demand much on the pricing...so although they have a big farm, the money that they could get from selling cocoa is barely enough for them to get by... their minimum wage per month is about RM 350 only!



Winding road to the cocoa farm.. it's the rainy reason.. jalan licin and lecak teruk..

With Pak Jailani..apsal muka aku poyo tu? :p

With Pak Hamzah, the trader King!

My team with Pak Zulkifli, Pak Hamzah and Nadra (our translator)

Drying the cocoa beans.. hmm....wonder how something so yummy could actually be so icky!

More cocoa drying -- on the baadminton court..

Processed cocoa at Pak Hamzah's place..

Dried cooca beans..

The cocoa kiddies.. :)

We were at Pidie District for a couple of hours.. The journey going back was scary coz it was dark (lampu jalan takde), it rained heavily and the road was slippery. By the time we reached the hotel it was already 8.30pm. Everybody was pretty tired but we of course had to conggregate and share our findings. Our session ended at about 11.30pm -- I was half dead by then... that was just the first day.. still a long journey for the team...