Indonesia's Lampung December cocoa exports rise

Cocoa bean exports from Indonesia's Lampung province on Sumatra island rose 25 percent in December from a year ago, government trade office data showed on Monday. Lampung's exports have been volatile in recent months, although mostly falling throughout the year, as the Indonesian industry battles with pests and disease.
Last year Indonesia was hit by an abnormally wet rainy season, which wreaked havoc to the crop and hampered a $350 million programme launched in 2009, to boost production to more than 600,000 tonnes within five years. Overall cocoa output in Indonesia, the world's third largest exporter of cocoa beans after Ivory Coast and Ghana, fell 27 percent to 420,000 tonnes in 2011.