IN SHORT: Indonesian white sugar output seen 10 percent lower

Indonesia's white sugar production will hit between 2.3 and 2.4 million tonnes this year, or about 10 percent lower than a government estimate, the Indonesian Sugar Association (AGI) said on Friday. Indonesia, Southeast's Asia biggest sugar consumer, has between 430,000 to 450,000 hectares of sugarcane plantations, and is estimated to produce 2.58 million tonnes of white sugar this year, according to agriculture ministry data.
"With our current yield proportion of around 7.14 percent and cane production of 73.29 tonnes per hectare We estimate our white sugar production may only reach 2.3-2.4 million tonnes this year," Colosewoko, AGI's Secretary said on Friday.
Indonesia has harvested two thirds of its sugarcane plantations by the end of August with total white sugar production of 1.588 million tonnes, Colosewoko added.The archipelago of 17,000 islands is targeting self-sufficiency by 2014.
Indonesia was once the world's second largest sugar exporter after Cuba in the 1930s.But ageing sugar mills, a vast network of smallholders and an influx of cheaper imported sugar put pressure on local production. Southeast Asia's biggest economy now imports more than 2 million tonnes of sugar - both raw and white - to meet household and industrial consumption.