Agriculture Minister Notes Anomaly: Production Shortfall, Yet Local Sugar Fails to Sell
Agriculture Minister Amran Sulaiman has emphasised that the government is promoting strengthened import ban and/or restriction (lartas) policies to control the entry of refined sugar into the domestic market. To date, refined sugar has been produced from imported raw sugar processed domestically, becoming refined sugar or industrial sugar.
“Going forward, lartas is already in place, isn’t it, Minister of Trade? We are fighting for lartas, because this isn’t just happening with sugar. It’s happening with milk, and then with soybeans,” said Amran during a working meeting with Commission VI of the House of Representatives at the parliamentary complex in Jakarta on Wednesday (8/4/2026).
He assessed that lartas policy is key because the domestic market has tended to be too open without adequate controls.
“This must be controlled, because we accepted the advice for a free market with no lartas,” he stated.
Amran also emphasised the need for direct government involvement in controlling the distribution of imported refined sugar domestically.
“Once again, Madam (chair of Commission VI of the House of Representatives), we really need to control refined sugar (that leaks into consumer sugar). The one to control this must be the government. If necessary, state-owned enterprises should take a part so we can control it,” he said.
The push to accelerate lartas is inseparable from the peculiar sugar market conditions. Amran revealed that amid still insufficient production, domestic sugar is not being absorbed by the market.
“There is indeed something a bit odd here, Madam. On one side, our production is short, but our sugar (local production) can’t sell. So our production is short but the sugar molasses can’t sell,” explained Amran.
He noted that this phenomenon is occurring in several sugarcane production centres, including East Java. “Madam Chair, Deputy Chair must know about it in East Java, and it happened in October. It couldn’t sell, so there’s an indication it couldn’t sell, there’s an anomaly there,” he said.
According to Amran, this condition is triggered by the flooding of refined sugar entering the consumer sugar market and directly competing with local sugar. “What’s happening in the field, Madam, refined sugar is flooding. If it leaks only a little, this is a flood,” he revealed.
He added that reports from farmers in various regions show refined sugar entering the market directly. “That happened, we immediately called because there were reports from farmers in Central Java, East Kalimantan, South Sulawesi, that refined sugar is directly entering the field, the market,” he said.
In addition, the physical similarity between refined sugar and consumer sugar makes supervision even more difficult. “And indeed, Madam, that’s ICUMSA (International Commission for Uniform Methods of Sugar Analysis), the term for its whiteness level, Indonesia’s white sugar, foreign refined, their colours are similar. This is a big problem. So what’s hitting our farmers is us ourselves,” explained Amran.
As a result, sugarcane derivative products like consumer sugar and molasses are not absorbed, and their prices continue to fall. “The molasses isn’t selling, the price keeps dropping. Previously Rp1,900 per kg, now Rp1,000 per kg. So it’s odd, on one side we import but our production isn’t selling,” he said.
With this condition, Amran emphasised that strengthening lartas is the main step to reorganise the national sugar market and protect domestic farmers.