Jakarta, Aug 26 (ANTARA) - Consumers are waiting for the government's decision to launch market operations to offset the upward trend of sugar prices where Muslim throughout the country badly need the commodity in the current fasting month.
In the past few days, particularly with the entry of the fasting month of Ramadhan, sugar prices in various parts of the country have increased to a range between Rp7,000 per kg and Rp11,000 per kg.
Amid the price increase, the government has not yet decided a firm step. Minister for State Enterprises Sofyan Djalil said that sugar-making firm PTPN has no plan yet to launch market operations as its stock is small.
However, according to PTPN XI corporate secretary, Adig Suwandi, state-owned sugar companies and the trade ministry would hold a technical meeting on Thursday to discuss the plan to launch market operations.
Yet, Minister Sofyan Djalil said PTPN had no plan to launch sugar market operations because it only had 200,000 tons of sugar in stock. "PTPN has no plan yet to launch market operations because its sugar stocks are now small," the minister said at his office on Wednesday.
The minister said the sugar stocks that had remained at PTPN factories totaled 200,000 tons only because sugar production had been auctioned and controlled by the market. "Should PTPN conduct a market operation, we still have to look at its technical implementation," the minister said.
The minister said sugar price had been increasing in the current fasting month due to the fact that most of sugar stocks had been in the hands of the third parties. "The already milled sugar canes have been auctioned and are now in the hands of the third parties. In the meantime, the price of sugar in the international market is also on the rise," the minister said.
He admitted that the 200,000 stocks are a national figure, of which 70 percent belong to PTPN and the remaining 30 percent are owned by farmers. After all, the need for sugar so far at home could not be met with domestic production.
In spite of the minister's statement, PTPN XI is waiting for instruction to launch market operations. Corporate Secretary of PTPN XI Adig Suwandi said that state-owned sugar companies and the trade ministry would hold a technical meeting on Thursday to discuss the plan to launch market operations.
"Basically, we are ready to support the market operation plan. What we need to think about is its technical implementation. Ideally, it should be carried out through sugar bazaars," he said.
The market operations will be launched in response to the rising of sugar price which was previously recorded at Rp8,000 - Rp6,500 per kg to Rp9,500 per kg.
During the market operation, sugar will be sold at the highest price of Rp7,000 per kg in Java and Rp7,500 outside Java. The increase in sugar price is predicted to continue until the post-fasting lebaran festivities because sugar stocks in the market are declining, although sugar cane grand harvest and milling season are now going on.
In the current 2009 milling season, the national sugar production of 60 factories is estimated at 2.7 million tons, while the need for sugar for direct consumption reached 2.6 million tons.
The need for refined sugar reaches 1.2 million tons, consisting of one million tons for large-scale industries and 200,000 tons for middle and small scale industries
According to Bayu Krisnamurthi, a deputy to the chief economic minister, the government will soon launch sugar market operations as the price of this commodity has risen from Rp7,000 per kg to Rp9,000 per kg. Sugar bazaars will be held in a number of places throughout Indonesia. "Basically we support the launching of sugar bazaars but I have no idea yet about its technical implementation," he said.
In Madiun, East Java, the trade and industry service is also waiting for a decision from the central government over the need to launch sugar market operations to offset increasing prices.
Head of Madiun Trade Office Agus Hendardjo said he had not yet received an instruction from the central government or provincial government to launch market operations. Usually, market operations are launched if price increase has reached a certain point. "Therefore, we are continuing our market price monitoring. The increase should have been followed by market operations, but recently the central government said market operations could not yet be carried out because sugar stocks are declining," Hendardjo said.
The price of sugar in Madiun in a number of traditional markets has reached Rp9,200 per kg while several days earlier the price was only Rp8,500 per kg.
In Kendari, South East Sulawesi, sugar prices in traditional markets have increased 20 percent from Rp9,000 per kg to Rp11,000 per kg, traders said. A number of traders at traditional said distributors had raised the price of their supplies from Rp410,000 per sack (50 kg) to Rp425,000 per sack.
In Medan, North Sumatra, the city administration will disburse Rp2.6 billion in subsidy for bazaar activities in 115 places in the city to provide basic necessaries like sugar with low prices.
"The cheap basic good bazaars will be held for one month," T Basyrul Kamali of the trade and industry office said after launching a bazaar Wednesday. The prices of commodities will be lower than the market price. Sugar for example will be sold at Rp7,750 per kg, or lower than the market price of Rp9,000 per kg and wheat at Rp6,350 per kg which is lower than the market price of Rp7,100 per kg.
The upward trend in the sugar price in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, meanwhile, is believed to have been caused by speculative traders who wanted to reap profit in the present fasting month.
"The volumes of stocks at the distributor level on August 20, 2009 were still higher than the total monthly need," Head of the Local Trade and Industry Service M Yusuf said. The monthly need of Pontianak for sugar is about five to six thousand tons, he said adding that the need increased by about 20 percent in the fasting month.
In Semarang, Central Java, sugar price in a number of traditional markets has also continued to increase and has now reached Rp9,500 per kg from Rp8,800 per kg last week, traders said.
"The price has been increasing since in the last several days. I was informed by distributors that the price might continue to increase this fasting month," Nur a trader at Johar traditional market said.***2*** (T.A014/A/HAJM/19:35/a014) (T.A014/A/A014/A/A014) 26-08-2009 19:45:55 |
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