Indonesia, Southeast Asia's top sugar consumer, has enough white sugar stocks to meet domestic demand until its milling season begins in May, a government minister said on Friday, adding that a decision on imports would be announced next month.
Southeast Asia's largest economy currently has about 800,000 tonnes of white sugar inventories, Agriculture Minister Suswono told reporters. "We are not in a hurry to decide whether we have to import white sugar in 2012...," Suswono said.
Some sugar mills in Sumatra province will begin their milling seasons in January and February, he added, explaining that this would help top up stock levels. The Indonesia Sugar Council plans to submit its sugar import recommendations to Indonesia's chief economic minister at the end of January, Suswono said.
Indonesia was once the world's second-largest sugar exporter in the 1930s. But ageing sugar mills, a vast network of smallholders and an influx of cheaper imported sugar put pressure on local production. Indonesia's 2011 white sugar output is estimated at 2.35 million tonnes, with monthly white sugar consumption at around 220,000 tonnes, government officials say.
Indonesian sugarcane farmers demonstrated at the trade ministry in December to demand the cancellation of a plan - denied by the government - to import 500,000 tonnes of sugar next year. Imports of mono-sodium-glutamate (MSG), raw, refined and white sugar into Indonesia were estimated 3.3 million tonnes in 2011, industry data shows.
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