APTRI requests that refined sugar factories enter IOD

Chairman of Indonesian Sugar Producers Association (APTRI) Arum Sabil during the Indonesian Farmers Association (HKTI) national work meeting in Jakarta, Tuesday, said that the policy resulting in the weakened competitiveness of the domestic sugar industry was due to the increasingly relaxed policies on sugar imports and ease of permits for domestic refinery factories. `We urge the government to immediately include sugar refinery factories in the negative investment list,` he said, affirming. Arum said that there were 11 sugar refinery factories in Indonesia with an installed capacity of five million tons. Meanwhile, he continued, there was an application for import permits from new sugar factories that amounted to almost 800 thousand tons for idle capacity. Arum detailed that it meant that production would increase by 5.8 million tons and if added with the domestic production of 2.5 million tons, the total would reach 8.3 million tons. However, he added, the domestic consumption only reached 5.7 million tons. `If we always seek a way out by importing sugar, it will ultimately kill the domestic sugar cane farmers,` he added. Furthermore, he continued, sugar market potential in Indonesia was huge and if the domestic sugar industry died, the price of sugar could be controlled by the world market. `There is no other way. Sugar cane farmers have to be saved, and there should be regulations that protect the farmers through law enforcement,` he said. Besides trying to include sugar refinery factories in the negative investment list, he also said that there should be revitalization of sugar factories and of sugar cane plants from 470 thousand hectares to 750 thousand hectares. `With yield increased by 10 percent, 75 tons of sugar cane will produce 7.5 tons of sugar. With consumption of 5.7 million tons, we will have a surplus,` he said. Therefore, Arum said that there should be a policy that favored sugar cane farmers so that the competitiveness of domestic production could be increased. `There are many obstacles, such as fertilizer and financing not coming on time. We urge the government to protect the domestic sugar industry,` he said.
Editor: Ruslan Burhanihttp://www.antaranews.com/berita/557418/aptri-minta-pabrik-gula-rafinasi-masuk-dni