Conducting Pharmacy Ethanol Exports To The Netherlands, ID FOOD Encourages Tebu Derivative Products To Enter The International Market

Photo: Doc. ID FOOD

JAKARTA - Food SOE Holding ID FOOD continues to support the government's efforts to strengthen the national sugar cane industry, one of which is through the development of sugarcane derivative products in the form of ethyl alcohol or ethanol 95 percent for pharmaceutical needs.

The development, which aims to increase the added value of the sugar cane business process, has succeeded in penetrating the foreign market, which was marked by the release of the first export of ethanol 95 percent by the ID FOOD subsidiary, PT PG Rajawali II to the Netherlands.

President Director of PT PG Rajawali II Wahyu Sakti Prionggo after releasing, Wednesday, April 3, at NPCT Tanjung Priok Jakarta, said this was a strategic step to strengthen the cane-derivative chemical product business line which is currently managed by PSA Palimanan, one of the PT PG Rajawali II business units.

"This is the first time we have exported 95 percent of ethanol products for pharmaceutical needs," he said.

He said that in the first export release, 95 percent of ethanol was sent as much as 47,000 liters.

"The total exports to be carried out in 2024 are 235,000 liters. This number is sent in stages in 6 shipments until December 2024," he explained.

According to Wahyu, currently the company has partnered with buyers from the Netherlands, so that the Netherlands is the main destination for exporting sugarcane derivative products produced by the company.

"This also shows that domestically produced sugarcane derivative products, such as ethanol, are in demand and accepted by the European market," he said.

Furthermore, Wahyu believes, the development of sugarcane derivative products will greatly impact the increase in the added value of sugarcane business activities run by PT PG Rajawali II. In addition, this is an excellent opportunity to increase the competitiveness of sugarcane derivative products at the global level.

"In the future, we will continue to encourage the development of sugarcane derivative products such as ethanol and increase production and quality. We continue to make efforts so that the sugarcane industry that we run today depends not only on the end of sugar products, but also produces derivative products including ethanol," he said.

Sementara itu, Direktur Komersial ID FOOD Nina Sulistyowati mengatakan, ekspor ethanol ini merupakan tindak lanjut ID FOOD dalam melakukan pengembangan untuk memperkuat lini bisnis sugar yang merupakan sektor bisnis terbesar perseroan.

"Currently, sugar is still the largest contributor to the ID FOOD revenue, approximately 35 percent of income is generated from the sugar industry which is produced from 3 subsidiaries, namely PT PG Rajawali I, PT PG Rajawali II, and PT PG Candi Baru. Therefore, the development of sugarcane derivative products is expected to encourage added value for increasing business scale," he said.

In addition, Nina added, this is also an effort to support the realization of sugar self-sufficiency in line with Presidential Decree No. 40 of 2023, concerning the Acceleration of National Sugar Swasembada and the Provision of Bioethenol as Nabati Fuel (Biofuel).

"We are benchmarking countries with established sugar industries such as Brazil, where the strong sugar industry sector must be supported by the development of quality sugar cane derivative products, so that the sector can be sustainable because it does not only depend on one commodity," he said.

In addition to producing ethanol, ID FOOD has also developed sugarcane-based products in the form of spirit, sugar cane molases, hand sanitizer, brown sugar, soy sauce, liquid sugar, sugar cane juice drink, and PTOC (Liquid Organic Land Improver).

Currently, the ID FOOD sugar business line is strengthened by 7 factories located in West Java and East Java. Manage 55 thousand ha of land both HGU and partnership, and contribute around 270 thousand tons of sugar annually.

"ID FOOD manages 10 percent of the overall national sugar cane land and contributes 13 percent of production," said Nina.