Indonesia is determined to become the world's largest cacao producer and exporter, a minister said Tuesday.

"We are determined to become world's number one in cacao industry," Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono said in a seminar.

According to the government data, the country has 992,546 hectares of cacao plantations with production totaling 652,350 tons in 2005.

Indonesia is currently the world's third largest in cacao production after the Ivory Coast and Ghana and second largest in cacao export after Ghana.

The country earns more than 650 million US dollars in foreign exchange revenue a year from cacao export.

"We need to raise competitiveness and productivity of Indonesia's cacao export to the global market," the minister said.

Through the cacao revitalization program, production is expected to reach 2 million tons a year, he said.

Source: Xinhua