Demo held in Jakarta, Sugarcane Farmers Ask for Sugar Price of IDR 11,000/kg

The CEO of the Indonesian People's Sugarcane Farmers Association (APTRI), Soemitro Samadikoen, revealed that the price of sugar in the auction is currently set at Rp 9,700/kg. According to him, that price is far from the basic production cost for farmers, which is around Rp 10,600/kg.

"We want the purchase price of sugar from farmers to not be Rp 9,700/kg, because we'll lose money at that price, it's below the production cost of Rp 10,600/kg. Ideally, farmers won't lose money at prices of Rp 11,000/kg. The government can sell according to the maximum retail price (HET) of Rp 12,500, which would give us a margin of Rp 1,500/kg," Soemitro said when met at Monas on Monday (8/28/2017).

He went on to say that even if the price of sugar increased to Rp 14,000/kg, consumers would not be too affected. Since the consumption of sugar is not as high as other basic food products, the per capita consumption is relatively low. But according to him, improved sugar prices would greatly help the farmers.

"Let's say a family of 5, which would use up around 4 kg of sugar in a month. If the price of sugar increased by Rp 2,000/kg, a family would only have to pay an extra Rp 8,000 per month. That's an insignificant expense over the course of a month compared to the cost of parking. And it would really help the farmers. Two years ago, the price of sugar was Rp 18,000/kg and no one complained, because it was still reasonable. But everyone complains when the price of chili peppers increases," he said.

According to him, the farmers' sugar is not selling because of the low price. On the other hand, imported refined sugar continues to trickle into the market, which is further depressing sugar prices.

"Our sugar still isn't selling. That's sugar that came out of sugar factories in June, and it still hasn't sold two months later because the highest bid we've gotten is only Rp 9,700/kg. There's a ton of refined sugar in the market, and if that's allowed to continue, sugarcane farmers will be reluctant to plant anymore, and in the long run we'll become even more dependent on imports," Soemitro said.

He said that the demonstration was carried out by thousands of farmers who had grown tired of the current conditions. Coming in by bus, the sugarcane farmers were from various regions in East Java, West Java, and Central Java.

Source: Finance.detik.com