RI UNLIKELY TO ACHIEVE SUGAR SELF-SUFFICIENCY TARGET

By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, Oct 20 (ANTARA) - It seems the government is unlikely to achieve its sugar self-sufficiency target of producing 5.7 million tonnes per annum by 2014.          It has just two years left to achieve the target, while sugar production has never exceeded 2.7 million tonnes per annum in the past 10 years.          Besides, the government revised down its sugar production target from 2.7 million tonnes to 2.57 million tonnes in 2011. And this year, too, it sharply cut its production target to 2.6 million tonnes from 4.4 million tonnes.          In order to achieve its sugar production target of 5.7 million tonnes by 2014, the government should expand its sugar cane plantations to approximately 850,000 hectares from the present 450,000 hectares.          According to Ismed Hasan Putro, the president director of PT Rajawali Nusantara Indonesia (RNI), an agro-industry company which has at least 10 sugar mills in Java, the government needs to bring an additional 400,000 hectares of land under sugar cane cultivation if it wants to achieve its 2014 target.          "However, it will need some 2.5 years to provide that much land because the effort will involve a lot of paperwork," Ismed explained.          However, there is not enough land available for plantation purposes in Java, which is crammed with sugar mills for the processing of sugar cane. Additional land for plantation expansion is available only outside Java.         The self-sufficiency production target had been set with the presumption that sugar cane plantations and factories would be expanded. However, that has not happened, due to which the government has had to revise down its production target.          "Those targets are unlikely to be achieved because there was no expansion of sugar plantations as planned. Moreover, efforts to modernise old sugar factories and plans to build new ones also failed," Plantation Director General Gamal Nasir said last month.          He noted that the target was set based on the assumption that 350,000 hectares of additional land would be brought under sugar cane cultivation.           "The expansion plan has failed. Besides, the modernisation plans for old sugar factories remain in the pipeline, as do the plans to build new factories. We have only two years left to go," Gamal pointed out.          However, he added, if the government managed to successfully implement the plans now, sugar cane production could reach 3.1 million tonnes by 2014.         Based on official data, the country's annual sugar production during the 2002-11 period never exceeded 2.7 million tonnes. The peak production of 2.7 million tonnes was recorded in 2008.         Therefore, publicly listed RNI called on the government to step up plantation expansion by bringing more land outside Java under sugar cane cultivation in order to meet the nation¿s sugar self-sufficiency target.          Meanwhile, RNI president director Ismed Hasan Putro pointed out the farmlands in Java were no longer as productive as they used to be. Therefore, he added, if the government continued to rely heavily on Java, it would never achieve its self-sufficiency target.          "If the government provides us with 100,000 acres of land, or 45,000 hectares, I will build a new sugar factory with a capacity of 20,000 tonnes. The construction costs for the factory and the selling of its products will be my responsibility," Ismed said at the Parliament building last week.          He said that if the government permitted RNI, he would soon set up the factory. "We have the money and the human resources," he stated.          Meanwhile, the ministry of agriculture said it would continue to make efforts to boost national sugar production by taking steps to improve the productivity of the existing sugar cane plantations.     ¿We would like to at least reach 3.1 million tonnes by 2014. We will use new seeds at plantations where harvest has already been done four times. This step will be taken to increase productivity," Agriculture Minister Suswono stated.           He added that his ministry cooperated with the Indonesian Sugar Plantation Research Centre (P3GI) in preparing sugar cane seeds of superior variety in order to increase productivity.           The seeds provided by P3GI so far have proven to be of high quality. Therefore, the ministry has set itself a target of planting such seeds over 50,000 hectares of land in order to achieve its production target for 2014.          "At present, finding land is still the main problem facing sugar cane plantation expansion efforts. The government still needs a total of 350,000 hectares of land, in addition to the existing 450,000 hectares, so it can achieve its 2014 target," Suswono said.          Indonesia's annual sugar consumption is estimated at 5 million tonnes, while the country produces only 2.50-2.57 million tonnes of crystal white sugar a year.         Therefore, almost 50 percent of domestic demand, including from the food and beverage industry, is met by importing sugar. ***2***   (T.A014/A/KR-BSR/A/A014) 20-10-2012 17:21:0