Govt reschedules sugar imports

JAKARTA: The Ministry of Trade has revised its white sugar import permits, giving more time to appointed companies to ship in the sweet commodity, a senior official said on Friday.

The ministry's director of importation, Aang Kanaan Kusumah, said the revision moved the deadline of both the first and second sugar shippings from Jan. 24 and Feb. 15, to Feb. 28. Meanwhile, the third deadline remains as March 30.

"Suppliers have said that it would be very hard for them to meet the initial deadline," Aang said.

On Dec. 7, the government reopened sugar importation, giving four state-owned companies permits to import up to 300,000 tons of sugar. The first and second shippings totaled 250,000 tons.

The four firms are plantation companies PTPN IX, PTPN X and PTPN XI and trading and manufacturing company PT Rajawali Nusantara Indonesia (RNI). -- JP