Sugarcane no longer sweet for farmers

Sugarcane no longer sweet for farmers

F. Rahardi, Agribusiness Working Forum (FKA), Jakarta

It is not only today that sugarcane growers have had a raw
deal. High levels of sugar imports, including raw sugar, is only
one factor that has been detrimental to sugarcane producers. No
matter how high the duties on sugar imports, this policy will not
in itself improve the welfare of sugarcane growers.

Sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L) is a commodity with a
long, dark history for growers in East Java.

In 1839, the Dutch Indies colonial administration, through
Governor General J. van den Bosch, issued the infamous
cultuurstelsel regulation. Javanese farmers were forced to grow
important commodities for export, the priority being sugarcane.

In 1890, cultuurstelsel was revoked because of strong
opposition from within the administration itself. Unfortunately,
the bitter taste of sugarcane continues today.

Farmers have been compelled to grow sugarcane under various
schemes like the Smallholders' Sugarcane Intensification (TRI)
program, Farmers' Business Loans (KUT) and so forth.

This condition is detrimental to both the public and the
government. Land with technically arranged irrigation in Java is
too costly for sugarcane planting, while shifting sugarcane
planting to other regions such as Aceh, North Sumatra, South
Sumatra, Lampung, South Kalimantan and South Sulawesi cannot be
expected to meet the rising demand for sugar.

Cane sugar from Java, in the form of brown sugar, was for
centuries the primary sweetener for Middle East and Europe.
Sugarcane cultivation is said to have begun in prehistorical
times. A Chinese traveler wrote in 400 A.D. that the cultivation
of sugarcane was intensive in Java and was processed into sugar.
Sugarcane, which belongs to the family of grass (Poaceae) is
indigenous to Indonesia, with its original habitat assumed to be
the Maluku islands or Irian Jaya.

When Dutch seaman Cornelis de Houtman docked in Banten (West
Java) in 1595, he found cane sugar a popular trading commodity.
Sugarcane planting had then spread to Timor, Jayakarta (now
Jakarta), Central Java, East Java and Palembang. Under Dutch
rule, cane sugar became a very important commodity. In 1747,
Great Britain, which was at war with Napoleon's France, blockaded
the trading line of cane sugar from Java. It was then that the
German chemist, Marggraf, successfully extracted sugar crystals
from the roots of sweet beet. Since then, cane sugar from Java
has had to compete with beet sugar.

Since the 16th century, sugarcane spread to virtually every
tropical region, including Central and South America. Now India,
China and Australia are major sugar producers. Sugarcane has been
proven to grow better in areas farther from the Equator.

Indonesia used to supply sugar to China, India, the Middle
East and Europe, but today it imports the commodity, including
raw sugar. Raw sugar must be processed into refined or granulated
sugar before it is consumed. This could be avoided if the
government was aware of our sugar industry's potential.

Other plants can be used as sweeteners. In Europe and the
United States, apart from beet there is the sugar maple tree; the
stevia, the leaves of which are used as sucrose, a sweetener 15
times sweeter than cane sugar but with a very low calorie
content.

Indonesia also has aren, or sugar palm, coconut, lontar
(Palmyra palm or Borassus flabellifer) and nipah (thatch palm or
Nipa fruticans), all of which yield palm sugar. Made without
chemicals, it is now trendy in Europe, Japan and the United
States. Unfortunately, the government has only introduced the
processing of crystalline sugar to coconut palm sugar makers in
Ciamis, West Java and in Purwokerto, Central Java.

Research on the potential of nipah has yet to be followed up
by technical applications. Lontar palmyra plants, which grow in
dry areas, are also in need of more serious attention. Even the
aren trees, the greatest potential source of palm sugar, is
almost extinct because the trees have been felled for their
starch.

Most of the cane sugar that Indonesia produces and imports
goes mostly to medium and small-scale industries. High fructose
syrup (HFS) is cheaper for industrial purposes. Indonesia's
tapioca flour, exported to the European Union, has never met its
quota and is mostly absorbed by the HFS and citric acid industry.

Through fermentation, cheap carbohydrates can be turned into
HFS, citric acid, alcohol and various derivative products such as
methanol (for fuel) and sorbitol (to produce the cold sensation
in peppermint candies, balsam, etc.). Various makes of packaged
solid citric extract in our market have tapioca flour, not fresh
oranges, as their main raw material.

Besides tapioca, other plants that can be used to make HFS are
sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas), ganyong (edible tuber, Canna
edulis) and sago (Metroxylon sago/M. rumphii). HFS of sago should
be much cheaper than the same substance made of cassava or other
carbohydrates. Unfortunately, this great potential has yet to be
properly managed.

In the 1980s, professor Mubyarto strongly criticized the
presence of sugar mills in Java as the government continued to
maintain them despite their great inefficiency. Java's sugar
mills should have been relocated outside Java; or alternatives
for sweeteners should have been sought.