GOVT URGED TO STOP CIRCULATION OF REFINED SUGAR

By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, July 22 (ANTARA) - The government has been urged by legislators and businesses to overcome the circulation of refined sugar as direct sales to consumers of this type of sugar, which is only designed for industry, has caused businesses to suffer billions of rupiahs.          "The government has to put in order refined sugar which has strayed into public market for direct consumption," Aria Bima, chairman of the House Commission VI for trade affairs said Thursday.          The legislator made the appeal following reports that refined sugar which is designed for food and drink industries has been sold to the public for direct consumption in the past several weeks.          The same appeal was also made by the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin). According to the Kadin, the government should tighten control over the distribution of refined  sugar to prevent the commodity which is imported to meet industry's needs from straying into the consumer market at industry's expense.         "The government has been  supervising it but not yet effectively enough so it must still be tightened.  We urge the police and other relevant agencies to increase supervision," Natsir Mansyur, chairman of the Permanent Committee for Trade and Distribution of the Kadin said.           He said that Kadin would form a sugar distribution supervision  team to assist the government in the supervision of sugar distribution to industry and consumers.          "We will form an internal team to assist supervision, and government officials can join this team," Natsir who chairs the Indonesian Wheat and Sugar Business Association (APEGTI) said.           In this case, Inayat Iman, director of the supervision of goods in circulation of the trade ministry, said that supervision over the distribution of sugar had been carried out well.          "We have sent a letter to the relevant agencies in the regions and the capital city to monitor sugar circulation in the market and based on their reports there was no refined sugar  in the consumer sugar market," he said.           However Natsir said that it was a reality that refined sugar that based on regulation could only be used by industry was sold in traditional markets in  Sulawesi, Maluku, Kalimantan and Sumatra. He said that businesses suffered a loss of some Rp30 billion due to the presence of refined sugar in consumer sugar  markets.          In Central Kalimantan for example, the absence of local sugar has caused the circulation in the market of refined sugar, like what was happening in Kapuas district.          The Trade and Industry Services of Kapuas district said refined sugar has been circulating in the consumption market because local sugar was no longer found on sales.          "Refined sugar circulated not only in Kapuas but also in all regions in Kalimantan because local sugar stocks are not available," Ferdinan Junarko of the industry and trade service said here on Thursday.          He said that based on the government regulation refined sugar could only be sold to industries and was not allowed to be sold in the public market for consumption.          Refined sugar has been in the market because the government did not provide local sugar so that traders were forced to sell refined sugar which was actually designed for industries.          There is suspicion that traders are keeping their local sugar stocks that caused scarcity in the market, as it can be found in Central Java.          According to Central Java's rice monitoring and control team (TPPH), it has recorded that about 32,000 tons of sugar were still kept and piled up in warehouses.          Antonius Tri Puji of the TPPH said that  off the 56,780 tons of imported sugar for Central Java, about 32,000 tons were still kept in a number of warehouses of state owned plantation firm PT Perkebunan Nusantara XI. Sugar was one of the commodities whose prices were now on the rise over the past few months.       Antonius said that high auction price of sugar in Central Java has caused the increase in sugar prices. The team recorded that at the sugar auction conducted on July 12, 2010 the price was Rp8656 per kg with the market price at Rp9,900 per kg.          The scarcity of consumption sugar in the market has led to traders to sell refined ones. In order to overcome the problem, legislators also urged the government to put the refined sugar in order.           Legislator Aria Bima said  the government should carry out a re-auditing of the distribution of refined sugar to see where the refined sugar so far had been channeled.          The government had better examine the portion of refined sugar for food and beverage  industries and supervise their distributors.          Aria suspected that refined sugar had so far strayed into the consumer sugar markets because its distribution was not well supervised. He also asked the government to provide a detailed report over  the amount of refined sugar which had strayed into the consumer sugar market.          Meanwhile,  chairman of the Indonesian Refined Sugar Association (AGRI) Melvin Korompis said he had never known before that refined sugar had strayed into consumer sugar markets.          Melvin suggested that the government set up a small team composed of representatives of inter-related sectors such as the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Trade. "This small team should supervise the distribution of refined sugar distribution," Melvin said.          Melvin said he would coordinate with other AGRI members to study the distribution networks and to learn how refined sugar could stray into the consumer sugar  markets in a number of regions.          In the meantime, Chairman of the Indonesian Sugarcane Growers Association (APTRI) H. Arum Sabil said  national sugar output this year is expected to fall 20 percent short of the government-set target of 2.9 million tons because of extreme climate change in recent months. The high rainfalls during the grand sugarcane harvest time had reduced the sugar content of sugarcane.          "Though the sugarcane harvested is abundant its sugar content declines because of too much water," he said.          With a population of about 230 millions Indonesia is a big sugar consumer needing about 3.8 million tons per annum. It needs some 2.7 million tons of sugar for direct consumption and 1.2 million tons of refined sugar for industries.          However, its own annual sugar output from about 60 factories only ranges between 2.7 million and 3 million tons, requiring it to import the balance.      ***2*** (T.A014/H-NG/H-YH) 23-07-2010 00:08: