Sugar cane farmers protested government

January 23, 2017, 01.32 PM  | Reporter: Noverius Laoli
Sugar cane farmers protested government


JAKARTA. Ministry of Commerce’s plan to issue license to import raw sugar to be processed into consumption sugar as much as 400,000 tons has sparked protest from the Indonesian Sugar Cane Farmers Association (APTRI).

In this case, the government has referred to invalid data to grant import license to eight private companies. Secretary General Muhammad Nur Khabsyin said that Ministry of Commerce does not need to issue more import license in this year, on the grounds domestic sugar production and the last year’s imported sugar will have met the demands of consumption sugar for 2017.

According to Nur, the stock of milled sugar production in 2016 remaining 800,000 ton. In addition, there are parts of 1.5 million of imported sugar, which have not yet been realized. Nur estimates that number will be sufficient until the milling season in May 2017. “The amount distribution of sugar, which are processed by refinery sugar company, is potentially to exceed the amount of imported sugar. Because, refinery sugar might be sold,” he said.

Moreover, Nur also corrected the data of Ministry of Trade, which mention that the demands of sugar consumption will amount to 3.2 million ton. According to him, the real demands are only 2.7 million ton.

However, Ministry of Trade refused to respond APTRI’s protest. Director General of Foreign Commerce at Ministry of Trade Doddy Edward has not yet answered to KONTAN’s question related to the urgency of the issuance of raw sugar import.

However, previously Minister of Trade Enggartiasto Lukita said that the sugar deficit of this year will be around 1 million ton, on the grounds that the production of consumption sugar in 2016 only amounted to 2.2 million ton. In order to anticipate the shortfalls of domestic sugar supplies, Ministry of Trade has granted license to import as much as 400,000 ton crude sugar to be processed domestically to be consumption sugar.

The license might be questioned, since the importers of refinery sugar have been granted with the license of industrial sugar as much as 1.5 million ton. (Muhammad Farid/Translator)

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