Indonesia to import 1.25 tons of sugar next year

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia is expected to import about 1.25 million tons of raw and refined sugar next year to meet growing demand, a senior official said.

Director general of plantations for the Ministry of Agriculture, A. Rante Tondok, said here yesterday that the projected amount of sugar for next year would be similar to this year's level.

Imports for 1998 are to comprise of 450,000 tons of raw sugar and 800,000 tons of refined sugar.

He said this year sugar imports would be about 1.2 million tons, comprising of 425,000 tons of raw sugar and 775,000 tons of refined sugar.

Indonesia's main suppliers are Thailand, India and Australia, but the country recently imported white sugar from Brazil due to the high premiums imposed by Thailand, Tondok said.

The domestic demand for sugar is about 3 million tons but only 2.2 million tons was produced locally this year.

Indonesia produced about 2.1 million tons of sugar last year, a 2.2 percent drop from 1996. This year's production is expected to increase to about 2.2 million tons.

Tondok said the growth in local sugar production was much lower than the yearly 3.8 percent rise in consumption.

"The production decline is mostly caused by the decrease in the number of sugar plantations and their size," he said at a two-day workshop on the national's sugar policy, held by the Association of Indonesia Sugarcane Technologist.

He said that there were 68 sugar plantations, compared to 100 plantations prior to independence in 1945. The areas used by sugarcane plantations decreased to 385,000 hectares this year compared to 428,000 hectares in 1994.

Indonesia's sugar imports are expected to continue in the future in line with the improvement in the public's per capita income, he said.

"Sugar consumption has, for the past five years, exceeded production, leaving us as an importer of the commodity," he said, adding that production could barely meet the yearly domestic consumption of 15 kilograms per capita.

Imported sugar last year cost the country about US$350 million in foreign exchange, he said.

"The cost will jump this year due to the rupiah's sharp depreciation."

Tondok said the lack of productive land in Java, the largest sugarcane producing area in the country, was another hurdle for growth in sugar production in addition to the poor condition of existing mills. (gis)