JakartaPost-Jan 23, 2024
Indonesia needs to increase its sugar production by almost 300 percent from the current amount by 2030 if the country wants to achieve self-sufficiency, including feeding its bioethanol ambition. To realize this, Indonesia would need to reach sugar production of 9.7 million tons by 2030, according to data compiled by state-owned plantation holding PTPN. This is a significant increase from last year’s production, which is estimated at around 2.5 million tons. Producing this amount is expected to require 1.18 million hectares of land for sugarcane plantations, where currently Indonesia only has 489,000 ha of land, the same data also show. The Agriculture Ministry’s seasonal crops director M. Rizal Ismail said at an event on Tuesday that Indonesia needed at least 13 billion sugar cane seeds to realize the 2030 target. The country also needs to massively increase the number of sugar processing plants, he said, adding that currently there were only 58 sugar factories, spread across Java, Sulawesi and Sumatra. For now, the ministry has targeted building 10 new factories across the country, hoping this could boost sugar production, especially by using produce from smallholders. President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo vowed to bring Indonesia into sugar self-sufficiency when he rose to power in 2014, but almost a decade later the country remains one of the top sugar importers in the world. Imported sugar comprises more than half of the nation’s supply to meet its annual demand. According to data from the United Nations’ Trade Map, Indonesia is the third-largest sugar importer in the world after the United States and China. Read more at:
