Indonesia has set aside 25,000 hectares for sugarcane plantations in the Merauke food estate in the Papua region, out of a target of 350,000 hectares, an agriculture ministry official said on Thursday. Indonesia, Southeast's Asia biggest sugar consumer, is expected to produce 2.7 million tonnes of white sugar in 2011, and is targeting self-sufficiency by 2014.
Indonesia's forestry ministry said in May it had offered 2.0 million hectares (4.9 million acres) of degraded and forest land to be used as sugar plantations. He added that for 2012, a budget of 204 billion Indonesian rupiah ($23.7 million) would be set aside for sugar self sufficiency. Prolonged rains in Java island, which supplies 60 percent of Indonesia's sugar output, delayed the domestic crushing season from May to June last year, and reduced the sugar content in cane, resulting in lower production.
In April, Indonesia's agriculture ministry said it would import 226,000 tonnes of raw sugar from May until the end of 2011 in order to fill idle milling capacity. Indonesia was once the world's second largest sugar exporter after Cuba in the 1930s. But ageing sugar mills, a last network of smallholders and an influx of cheaper imported sugar put pressure on local production.
Singapore's Wilmar International , the world's largest listed palm oil firm, has a concession to develop 200,000 hectares of grassland in Indonesia's Papua island for sugar cultivation. Indonesia's government influences prices by issuing import permits for different types of sugar, effectively restricting the inflow of cheaper grades into the country. State Enterprise Minister Mustafa Abubakar also recommended that parliament appoint state procurement agency Bulog as the only importer for raw sugar, white sugar and refined sugar to make it easier to monitor imports.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.