Jokowi pledges to stop sugar imports

JAKARTA. President-elect Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has promised to stop importing sugar if imports continue to hurt domestic farmers.

“If sugar is sufficiently available in the country, we should certainly stop importing it,” he told thousands of farmers at an informal meeting organized by the chairman of the Sugarcane Farmers Association (APTRI), Arum Sabil, in the village of Tanggul Kulon, Jember, on Tuesday.

Ahmad, a sugar grower from Blora in Central Java, asked Jokowi to halt sugar imports as they caused marketing problems for sugar farmers, Antara reported.

The growers also complained about the low price of their sugar, the low productivity of their sugarcane plantations and how most of the country’s sugar factories were too old and inefficient.