BPS Records Increase in Sugar Production and Decline in Household Consumption
Jakarta (ANTARA) - Deputy Head of the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) Sonny Harry Budi Utomo Harmadi stated that national sugar production has increased while consumption has declined, reflecting improvements in food security and a shift in public consumption patterns towards healthier habits.
“What is interesting is that our sugar consumption tends to decrease over time, including per capita consumption,” Sonny said during a working meeting with Commission VI of the House of Representatives (DPR RI) in Jakarta on Wednesday.
He mentioned that national sugar production in 2025 reached 2.67 million tonnes, an increase compared to 2.47 million tonnes in the previous year 2024, and 2.23 million tonnes in 2023.
“One of the drivers of the increase in sugar production in 2025 is the rise in the harvested area of our sugarcane,” he said.
He explained that this production increase was driven by the expanded harvested area of sugarcane, reaching 563,000 hectares in 2025, up from 521,000 hectares in the previous year.
The distribution of the sugarcane harvested area is concentrated in several major provinces such as East Java, Lampung, Central Java, South Sumatra, and West Java, which are the national production centres.
Meanwhile, household sugar consumption was recorded at around 1.4 million tonnes or approaching 1.5 million tonnes nationally to meet daily needs.
Interestingly, the trend in household sugar consumption shows a decline compared to previous years, with the current figure around 1.46 million tonnes, reflecting changes in consumption patterns.
Nevertheless, he did not detail the household sugar consumption figures for the past two or three years. However, he emphasised that there has been a decline in household-level sugar consumption.
According to Sonny, this decline is suspected to be influenced by increasing public awareness of healthy living patterns as well as a shift in consumption towards ready-made foods produced by industry or the services sector.
“Thus, they do not buy sugar directly but use ready-made foods produced by industry or by restaurants,” he explained.
The household-level sugar consumption only accounts for about 23.13% of total national sugar usage, indicating the dominance of sugar use in other sectors outside direct public consumption.
In addition, the hotel, restaurant, and catering sector (Horeka) contributes more than 970,000 tonnes of sugar usage as part of meeting public consumption needs.
Overall, total national sugar usage in 2025 reached 6,330,690 tonnes, reflecting the high demand for sugar across various economic sectors and public consumption.
Although production has increased, Indonesia still imported 3.93 million tonnes of sugar in 2025, with the main supplies coming from Brazil, Thailand, and Australia.