Danantara COO Reveals Sugar Co's Rp 680 Billion Loss Due to Flood of Sugar Imports
Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia - Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Danantara, Dony Oskaria, revealed that the red-plate sugar company, Sugar Co, recorded losses of up to Rp 680 billion. These losses were attributed to price pressures triggered by the influx of imported sugar (raw sugar as raw material for refining) into the consumption sugar market.
“This year, Sugar Co booked a loss of Rp 680 billion due to prices that were indeed not good enough, resulting from uncontrolled sugar imports,” Dony said during a Working Meeting with Commission VI of the House of Representatives (DPR RI) at the Parliamentary Complex in Jakarta on Wednesday (8/4/2026).
He explained that this situation was inseparable from the leakage of refined sugar entering the consumption sugar market, which depressed domestic sugar prices and made it difficult for the industry to develop. According to him, if this issue persists, the national sugar industry will continue to be under pressure and struggle to grow.
Dony also touched on previous government interventions, including the absorption of sugar from the public through subsidies. However, these efforts were deemed not to have a significant impact on market improvement.
“I have discussed this several times with the Minister of Agriculture (Amran Sulaiman); actually, we have implemented subsidies into the market to absorb all the sugar from the public amounting to Rp 1.5 trillion. But that also did not provide a significant impact,” he stated.
He emphasised that this issue cannot be resolved merely through meetings but requires real improvements in industry governance.
As a corrective step, Danantara is pushing for sugar business consolidation through the merger of state-owned enterprises (BUMNs). Dony explained that there are currently two main entities in the sugar sector: Sugar Co under PT Sinergi Gula Nusantara (SGN) and sugar mills under ID Food.
Through the merger, all of ID Food’s sugar business will be integrated into SGN to form a more focused and integrated manufacturing entity. Meanwhile, ID Food will be directed to focus on trading business.
“In line with that process, we want to carry out consolidation through a merger, combining ID Food into SGN,” he clarified.
Dony added that this step aims to clarify the business focus of each entity to make them more effective in carrying out their roles in the industry.
“ID Food will focus its business on becoming a trading company. So, this is deliberately done so that they focus on their respective core businesses,” Dony said.
With this consolidation, the government targets the formation of a single sugar holding that controls the majority of the national market share. “Thus, we will have one sugar mill holding that controls 60 percent of the total market share in Indonesia,” he stated.
When met after the meeting, Dony added that the losses occurred in the previous year, namely 2025, and serve as a strong signal for the need for transformation in the sugar industry. He assessed that without improvements, the pressure will not only be felt by large companies but also by farmers.
“Last year. But don’t just look at that; it means we see that we must view the angle that we need to carry out transformation and change in our sugar industry,” Dony explained.
He also assured that the merger process will be completed soon as part of the restructuring of BUMN in the sugar sector. “Next month it must already be finished,” he said.
In addition, all ID Food-owned sugar companies will be integrated into SGN, while trading functions will continue to be handled by ID Food. “We will take over all of ID Food’s sugar companies and unite them into SGN,” he concluded.