Sugar Production Rises, Consumption Level Falls
Deputy Head of the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), Sonny Harry Budi Utomo Harmadi, stated that national sugar production has increased while consumption has decreased. He noted that this reflects improvements in food security and a shift in societal consumption patterns towards healthier options.
“What is interesting is that our sugar consumption tends to decrease over time, including per capita consumption,” said Sonny during a working meeting with Commission VI of the House of Representatives in Jakarta on Wednesday, 8 April 2026, as reported by Antara.
He mentioned that national sugar production in 2025 reached 2.67 million tons, an increase from 2.47 million tons in 2024 and 2.23 million tons in 2023.
“One of the drivers of the increase in sugar production in 2025 is the expansion of sugarcane harvest area,” he said.
He explained that the production increase was driven by the rise in sugarcane harvest area to 563,000 hectares in 2025, up from 521,000 hectares in the previous year.
The distribution of sugarcane harvest areas is concentrated in several major provinces such as East Java, Lampung, Central Java, South Sumatra, and West Java, which are the national production centres.
In line with the harvest areas, the distribution of white crystal sugar production follows a similar pattern in the major producing provinces, significantly supporting the national production increase.
Meanwhile, household sugar consumption was recorded at around 1.4 million tons or approaching 1.5 million tons nationally to meet daily societal needs.
Interestingly, the trend in household sugar consumption shows a decline compared to previous years, with the latest figure around 1.46 million tons, 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 decrease in household-level sugar consumption.
He stated that per capita sugar consumption has also decreased to around 5.15 kilograms per person per year, in line with the declining trend in other commodities like salt. For information, Indonesia’s average per capita sugar consumption in 2023 reached 5.8 kilograms per person per year.
According to Sonny, the decline is suspected to be influenced by increasing public awareness of healthy lifestyles and 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 restaurants,” he explained.
The household-level sugar consumption accounts for only about 23.13 percent of total national sugar usage, indicating the dominance of sugar use in other sectors beyond direct public consumption.
The processing industry sector is the largest user of sugar, with a volume of nearly 3.9 million tons, reflecting high sugar-based industrial activity in Indonesia throughout 2025.
In addition, the hotel, restaurant, and catering sector (Horeka) contributes more than 970,000 tons of sugar usage as part of societal consumption service needs.
Overall, total national sugar usage in 2025 reached 6,330,690 tons, reflecting high sugar demand for various economic sectors and public consumption.
Although production has increased, Indonesia still imported 3.93 million tons of sugar in 2025, with the main supplies coming from Brazil, Thailand, and Australia.