President Director of the Nusantara Plantation Holding, Muhammad Abdul Ghani, explained that the company has a strategy to strengthen sugar and palm oil commodities by reducing the area of land for other plantation plants, namely rubber and tea. "So we will reduce (land) for rubber and tea, but we will increase it for sugar and palm oil. This is part of PTPN's role as a BUMN supporting national independence," said Abdul Ghani, quoted from Antara, Wednesday, August 5, 2020. Ghani explained that the company will strengthen the sugar commodity by expanding the area of sugarcane plants from around 56 thousand hectares (ha) currently to around 80 thousand ha. One of the expansions is carried out by converting rubber land owned by the subsidiary and synergizing with other BUMN companies, such as Perum Perhutani. According to Ghani, the company's decision to reduce the area of rubber and tea plantations is based on the increasing need for national sugar. Fulfilling domestic sugar production through the expansion of sugarcane areas is considered to be able to reduce the country's dependence on sugar imports. In 2019, PTPN recorded the national sugar requirement reaching around six million tons, consisting of three million tons of sugar for household consumption and three million tons for the food and beverage industry. Meanwhile, domestic sugar production has only reached 2.2 million tons. On the other hand, the contribution of other plantation crops to food independence, such as rubber and tea, can be substituted with other commodities. Ghani added that the PTPN Group is targeting one million tons of sugar consumption production this year with a yield of around eight percent. The production comes from the sugarcane areas owned by PTPN, namely PTPN II, PTPN VII, PTPN IX, PTPN X, PTPN XI, PTPN XII, and PTPN XIV, as well as farmers this year around 168 thousand ha and is projected to be able to produce sugarcane for milling as many as 12.2 million tons. Source: https://radarindo.co.id/2020/08/06/headline/holding-ptpn-akan-fokus-ke-sawit-dan-gula/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=holding-ptpn-akan-fokus-ke-sawit-dan-gula
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