Strengthening Farmer's Capacity on Responsible Production and Consumption on Primary Process of Cocoa Production Using Material Flow Cost Accounting

The growth and development of fermented cocoa agroindustry as demand driven requires strengthening farmers starting from the stages of plant maintenance, processing of fermented cocoa beans and maintaining cocoa quality throughout the supply chain. Material flow cost accounting (MFCA) is used to track and measure material flows and inventories in physical and cost units. The application of this MFCA to power and waste management aims to identify the material, energy, and economic costs of primary handling of cocoa, exploring challenges and opportunities related to the environmental burden of dry fermented cocoa bean production. Analysis of product handling, energy, and waste from processing cocoa fruit into dry fermented beans focuses on when the waste is produced, the value of lost income due to by-products and the risk of low product selling value, and waste handling from the farmer side, the product processing unit, and its distribution. The percentage of cocoa beans after the sorting, ripening, and splitting processes was obtained at 14.39% per batch for further processing into dry cocoa beans. In general, solid waste from processing cocoa pods into dry fermented beans can account for around 30-40% of the total weight of processed cocoa pods. This percentage may vary depending on various factors such as processing methods used, process efficiency, and waste management practices implemented by the manufacturer or is equivalent to more than Rp242-268 per kg fruit price, to which energy losses and supporting materials must be added (435-481 million euros). MFCA results are useful for business decisions, highlighting quantity, quality, and costs that are not considered in typical financial reports.