RI NEEDS TO IMPORT 700 THOUSAND TONS OF SUGAR

By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, Aug 14 (ANTARA) - Businesses producing sugar-based products are calling on the government to import some 700 thousand tons of raw crystal sugar to anticipate a sugar shortage this year.          "The country's sugar need for industry and consumption is estimated at five million tons while the remainder of last year's sugar imports plus that already imported this year only total  4.3 million tons, so we still run short of 700 hundred tons,"   Food and Beverage  Businessmen Association (Gapmi) General Chairman Adhi S Lukman said on Friday.          After all, he said, sugar production of about 60 factories at home which last year totaled 2.7 million tons was predicted to drop to 2.1 tons.  This requires the government to prepare a mechanism for the importation of 700 thousand tons of raw crystal sugar to anticipate sugar shortages.          This is regardless of the fact that sugar supply to industry is still safe because refined sugar industry still has stocks. "Actually the 700 thousand tons are only for use, not for stocks. If we need stocks we need to import more (more than 700 thousands), about one to two month need," he said.          Lukman said the import mechanism should have been prepared this August so that it could be carried out next November, thus there would be no parties who could manipulate sugar prices and disadvantage sugarcane farmers.          Actually, like last year when it imported sugar for this year's stocks, the government is now also planning to import sugar but it  is designed for next year's stocks. It has predicted that sugar production in 2011 would drop.          "The import plan is more aimed at meeting next year's stocking needs in the face of a fall in domestic sugar production," Trade Minister Mari Elka Pengestu said here on Friday.          She said  the imports were especially needed to meet the need for sugar in the first five months of 2011. The government believed the dry spells in the country would affect national sugar production. "Production this year is predicted to be lower than last year," she said.          She said however stocks now were enough to meet the need for sugar in the current fasting month and during the post-fasting lebaran festivities.          Earlier, the Indonesian Refined Sugar Business Association (AGRI) insisted that the government  issue soon a license for the importation of sugar to produce refined sugar.          M Yamin of AGRI said that stocks of raw sugar to make refined sugar for industry were now declining. The refined sugar industry must be able to meet the annual need for sugar of the food and beverage industries which reached 600,000 tons.          Lukman supported Yamin's call for the government to import sugar. He said that Gapmi expressed fear that it would suffer a sugar shortage because national sugar production was predicted to decline this year.          The need for sugar for food and beverage industries this year reached five million tons. "Sugar production last year was 2.7 million tons and this year it is expected to drop to 2.1 million tons," he said.          He said, if sugar imports this year and the remainders of last year's imports were added up, the total would only reach 4.3 tons. "So, there is a shortage of 700,000 tons," he said.          Even though Indonesia is an agricultural country, the government has to import sugar every year to meet the need at home.          In September last year, the government decided to import 180,000 tons of raw sugar in an effort to increase its sugar stocks and to secure sugar supplies in the country in the first five months of 2010.           In 2009, the government was allocating 1.6 million tons of raw sugar imports for refined sugar industries, and the importation of 380,000 tons of refined sugar.           Indonesia intends to become sugar self-sufficient but for this it needs to expand its sugarcane plantations. It needs another 350 thousand hectares of sugarcane plantation to reach self-sufficiency in sugar production.          Indonesia's sugarcane plantations at present cover about 480,148 hectares. During the 2004-2009 period, sugarcane plantations did not expand significantly. In 2004 it covered 344,795 hectares and in 2009 it was recorded at 480,148 hectares only.          Based on the results of a survey, the country now has around 7.3 million hectares of idle land, Agriculture Minister Suswono said. Nearly 2 million hectares of the land could be used as farm land including sugarcane plantation, he said.          The Agriculture Ministry has earlier projected that sugar stocks in 2010 will reach 6.24 million tons. The stocks will come from initial stocks, white crystal sugar production, refined sugar production, and imported sugar.            Meanwhile, the country's sugar needs this year are projected to reach 4.94 million tons.  As such, the country is expected to have a sugar surplus of up to 1.3 million tons this year.***2*** (T.A014/A/HAJM/13:05/f001) 14-08-2010 13:06:5