TEMPO.CO, Jakarta-The association of Indonesian sugar cane farmers, APTRI, opposes the government's plans to import 381,000 tons of raw sugar through state-owned enterprises. They reject the import plan because there is no clear projection yet regarding this year's sugar production shortage.
"The real estimate of sugar production will only be discovered by the peak of the milling season or around August," APTRI chairman Soemitro Samadikoen said on Monday, May 23, 2016.
Another reason is because earlier this year PT Perusahaan Perdagangan Indonesia (PPI) has already imported 200,000 tons of raw sugar.
"We afraid there might be an oversupply for 2016's sugar stock, which will cause prices to go down," Soemitro added.
Today, the main purchase price (HPP) of sugar at farmers' level is Rp10,500 per kilogram.
Soemitro also said that the policy to import raw sugar to compensate PTPN and PT RNI to guarantee a minimum yield of 8.5 percent is an instant policy that is "not educating". Additionally, the low yield occurs due to inefficiencies at sugar mills.
The profits from processing raw sugar for inefficient sugar factories, Soemitro said, will be spent on guaranteeing yields for farmers. There will be no profits left for revitalization.
"In principle, us farmers strongly support the 8.5-percent yield guarantee, but sans the imports compensation," he said.
The government had planned to import 381,000 tons of raw sugar through PT Perkebunan Nusantara X (PTPN X). The raw sugar was to be processed into white granulated sugar (GKP) in state-owned sugar mills.
The decision was made following a closed coordination meeting led by the Coordinating Minister for the Economy Darmin Nasution on April 29, 2016. As a follow up, the SOE Minister signed a letter registered as S-289/MBU/05/2016 on May 12, 2016 on the import of raw sugar for 2016.
The signed letter stipulates that six sugar factories will be allowed to import raw sugar this time. They are PTPN IX with a quota of 41,000 tons, PTPN X (115,000 tons), PTPN XI (100,000 tons), PTPN XII (25,000 tons), PT PG Rajawali I (48,000 tons), and PT PG Rajawali II (52,000 tons).
Wahyu Kuncoro, the SOE Ministry's deputy of agribusiness and pharmaceutical industries, said that the import quotas are given to plantation SOEs as an incentive to increase the yields of their sugar mills from an average of 8.0 percent to 8.5 percent.
"Sugar SOEs are expecting to be given the opportunity to import raw sugar in order to meet the domestic demand for consumable sugar," he said.
PINGIT ARIA