Amran's Fury Over Leaking Refined Sugar – Exposes Evidence: Strange and Bizarre!
Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – Agriculture Minister Amran Sulaiman has revealed irregularities in the national sugar trade. He conveyed this during a working meeting with the House of Representatives’ Commission VI, particularly regarding allegations of refined sugar leaking into the consumer market.
“This is indeed somewhat strange, Madam (Chair of Commission VI of the House of Representatives). On one hand, our production is insufficient, but the sugar cannot be sold. So our production is short, but the sugar molasses cannot be sold,” Amran stated during the meeting at the parliamentary complex in Jakarta on Wednesday (8/4/2026).
He described the situation as an anomaly, as amid production shortages, sugar and its derivatives are not being absorbed by the market.
“Madam Chair, Deputy Chair must know this happened in East Java, and it occurred in October. It couldn’t be sold, so there is an indication of an anomaly there,” he said.
Amran revealed that one cause of this situation is the entry of refined sugar, originating from imports, into the consumer market.
“What is happening in the field, Madam, is that refined sugar is flooding. If it leaks even a little, it floods. That happened, we immediately called because there were reports from farmers in Central Java, East Kalimantan, South Sulawesi, that refined sugar directly entered the field, into the market,” he said.
He explained that physically, refined sugar is difficult to distinguish from consumer sugar, thus worsening the situation in the field.
“And indeed, Madam, it’s ICUMSA (International Commission for Uniform Methods of Sugar Analysis), in terms of whiteness level, Indonesia’s white sugar, foreign refined sugar, the colour is similar. This is a big problem. So what hits our farmers is us ourselves,” he said.
When met after the meeting, Amran reiterated the existence of this anomaly and its impact on the domestic sugar market.
“Previously, the price of cane tips or molasses was Rp1,900 per kg, now it has dropped to Rp1,000 (per kg), what’s going on? Then sugar cannot be sold, even PTPN (Nusantara Plantations) was hit, the loss reported earlier was Rp600 billion. So, all PTPN sugar should sell, but it cannot, why? There is leakage of refined sugar, so the solution is that the President ordered a limited ban (lartas) and it has been issued,” Amran explained.
He also revealed findings in the field regarding the distribution of refined sugar entering the consumer market.
“At that time, the leakage was caught in Central Java, then South Kalimantan and several other areas, leakage from refined sugar but categorised, entered the market as white sugar or consumer sugar, this is dangerous,” he said.
He assessed that this condition makes the situation odd.
“Because of that earlier, refined leakage can come out (as if white sugar or consumer sugar), so strange and bizarre. We import but our sugar cannot sell, we import but our molasses cannot sell, very strange, right?” he concluded.