Jakarta. President Prabowo Subianto finds it ironic that the cacao-rich Indonesia imports its chocolate, citing that the raw ingredient abundance should have given the economy a sugar rush through the production of higher-value goods.

Prabowo recently held an interview session with cherry-picked senior journalists and experts at his Hambalang home. In the publicly shared interview, Prabowo named the industrial processing of Indonesia’s natural resources as “the only way” to grow the economy and create decent jobs. And that includes nurturing domestic chocolate production as Indonesia’s reliance on imports leaves a bad taste in Prabowo’s mouth. 

“We have the best chocolates, but sorry, we are still importing them. We eat Kit Kat and Cadbury,” Prabowo said, referring to popular foreign brands.

According to media reports, the British confectionery giant Cadbury once ran a factory in Jakarta, but cost issues prompted the company to relocate to ASEAN neighbors Malaysia and Thailand back in the 2000s. Kit Kat is the chocolate wafer brand produced by the Swiss food powerhouse Nestlé.

Prabowo said that Indonesia had already drafted a plan to “build the ‘industrial tree’ [or roadmap] for all commodities” that the country possesses. The roadmap is expected to include cacao and will detail how the country will ramp up its chocolate production.

In Indonesia, homegrown premium chocolate brands are growing in number. Many Indonesians are sweet on the decades-old, made-in-Garut Silver Queen. 

The move to capture value out of natural resources — popularly known as “hilirisasi” in Indonesia — was a centerpiece during the previous Joko “Jokowi” Widodo administration. Jokowi started the campaign by banning exports of unprocessed nickel ores. With such restrictions, Indonesia is hoping to lure foreign investors into setting up domestic manufacturing.

Indonesia’s production of cacao reached at least 616,000 tons in 2025. The number is expected to jump to 635,000 tons this year, according to Agricultural Ministry estimates. Cacao is the unprocessed version of cocoa. The latter is a mainstay in chocolate production. The Trade Ministry data showed Indonesia’s exports of cacao and its processed products neared $3.6 billion last year. Monthly overseas shipments had dropped roughly 27% year-on-year to $230.5 million in January 2026.