VP Kalla: Govt Will Continue Importing Sugar
8 December 2014 07:14 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Vice President Jusuf Kalla said that it is inevitable for the government to import sugar due to the low sugar production at home to meet the country’s demand.
According to Jusuf Kalla, domestic demand for sugar reaches 4.2 to 4.5 million tons of sugar per year, while production is still around 2.5 to 2.8 millions of ton per year.
"Inevitably, we have to import around two million tons of sugar,” Jusuf said during a visit to Gempolkrep sugar factory owned by PT Perkebunan Nusantara X in Mojokerto, East Java, Saturday, December 6, 2014.
Jusuf added that in order to increase the country’s sugar production, he called for improvement of plants so that the sugar content (rendement) increases.
"The main problem is how supply from domestic production could be bigger than before by increasing the production of sugar cane and the rendement.” he said.
In addition, he said that the government would also build 10 new sugar factories.
"We’re going to build 10 new sugar plants so we expect that the production would increase by 100 tons of sugar cane per hectare with 10 ton of rendement," he said.
In the meantime, Head of the Indonesian Association of People Sugar Cane Businessmen Mubin said that import of sugar has affected competitiveness of domestic sugar.
ISHOMUDDIN
