Chocolate Industry in Puslitkoka Jember is Benefits of Colonial Heritage

Abstract

In Indonesia, plantations can cultivate industrial crops such as cocoa, coffee, coconut and tea. The plantation system in Indonesia was also introduced through Western colonialism, namely Dutch colonialism. One of the places in Indonesia that has quite extensive plantation areas is Jember Regency, which is located in East Java Province. When compared to other parts of Indonesia, such as Sumatra and western and central Java, East Java was indeed too late to be exploited by the Dutch colonial government at that time. The Dutch sent several colonial researchers such as natural science researchers, especially foreign botanists in the early 19th century or around the 1800s, and traveled to trace the tip of the eastern island of Java called Java’s Oosthoek. Cocoa plants were introduced by the Spaniards in 1560 in Minahasa, North Sulawesi. According to van Hall, in 1859 there were 10,000 - 12,000 cocoa plants in Ambon. Of that many trees produced 11.6 tons of cocoa. However, then the plants disappear without further information (Van Hall, 1932 in Pujianto, et al: 2015). According to Graafland (Hall, 1949) cocoa plants have existed in Indonesia during the “culture culture” in 1826, but not yet a company plant. According to Jansen, the resident of Minahasa (Hall, 1949) efforts to make cocoa as a cash-generating plant have been tried in the area. However, it will face difficulties due to disease pests. Indonesia has an Indonesian Coffee and Cocoa Research Center (Puslitkoka). Founded on January 1, 1911 under the name Besoekisch Proefstation (Besuki Research Center) which has an office on Jl. PB. Sudirman No. 90 Jember. But starting in 1987 all activities / operations were transferred to the new office located in Nogosari Village, Rambipuji District, Jember, approximately 20km southwest of Jember City. As a colonial legacy, Puslitkoka now appears to be an educational tourism and become a chocolate industry that contributes a lot in terms of socio-economic conditions of the local community. Because many workers or employees are needed, the surrounding community is made employees with different salaries according to position, education, and years of service.