Govt to open 300,000 ha of new sugarcane plantations

The government will allocate up to 300,000 hectares for expansion of sugarcane plantations and rehabilitate old mills to increase sugar production, a senior official at the Industry Ministry said.

Deputy Industry Minister Alex Retraubun said in Jakarta on Monday that 300,000 hectares would be offered to investors as part of the revitalization of the sugar industry.

“The revitalization will also include the replacement of aging sugar mills,” he said during a hearing with Commission VI of the House of Representatives in charge of trade, investment and state enterprises.

He said sugar production was projected to more than double to 5.7 million tons by 2014 from 2.55 million tons in 2009.

Also speaking at the hearing, the ministry’s director general of agriculture and chemicals, Benny Wahyudi, said that the government was still studying proposals from firms wishing to participate.

“We have received proposals from 45 companies to open new sugarcane plantations on around 300,000 hectares of land provided by the government,” he said, without mentioning the names of the firms.

He said that some of the proposals had been processed but others were affected by unclear land status issues.

He said the new sugarcane areas would be in several provinces including Southeast Sulawesi, Lampung, South Sumatra , Papua, and West Nusa Tenggara Barat (NTB).

But some of the land allocated for new sugarcane plantations could not be processed because of land disputes. “We find some cases in which a piece of land is claimed by two or three companies,” he said.

“We are mapping the appropriate areas for our new plantations and trying to resolve the land issues,” he said, adding that his ministry had worked closely with other institutions such as the Forestry Ministry, National Land Agency (BPN), and the Agriculture Ministry to do this.

Despite difficulties in clarifying land status in some cases, he hoped that the process of reviewing all these proposals could be completed soon.

“Insya Allah [God willing], we will be ready to give the land permits to open the new sugarcane plantations in the middle of this year,” he said.

Apart from starting up the new sugarcane plantations, the Industry Ministry would also support the rehabilitation of aging sugar mills as part of the revitalization program.

Benny Wahyudi said about 2.7 million tons of the 5.7 million tons to be produced by 2014 will comprise refined sugar for industries, and the other 3 million tons would comprise white sugar for people’s consumption.

“With this program, we hope we will be self-sufficient in sugar production by 2014,” he said. Indonesia still imports refined sugar for industrial use, because local production is still unable to meet the growing demands of industry.

At present, Indonesia has 61 sugar mills, 51 of which are owned by the state and the other 10 are owned by private companies. Under the revitalization program, the government plans the construction of 12 new sugar mills.

source: thejakartapost