PT PG Rajawali II, West Java Sugar Industry's Last Fort Whose Performance Is Getting Hotter

ID FOOD President Director, Sis Apik Wijayanto. (Photo: Doc. ID FOOD)

JAKARTA - The step to build national sugar self-sufficiency needs to be supported by improvements in the sustainable performance of sugar factories, thus having an impact on increasing business scale and the welfare of sugarcane farmers. This condition is currently being driven by PT Rajawali Nusantara Indonesia (Persero)/Holding BUMN Food ID FOOD through its subsidiary PT PG Rajawali II.

President Director of ID FOOD Sis Apik Wijayanto, through his statement, Wednesday, August 7, in Cirebon, said that as the only sugar factory in the West Java region, PT PG Rajawali II is a support for sugar supply and income sources for sugarcane farmers in the West Java region.

"PT PG Rajawali II is the backbone as well as the last fort for the sustainability of the sugar industry in West Java. For this reason, we will continue to strengthen its performance," he said.

Sis Apik said that the strengthening of this performance can be seen from the increase in the company's achievements in 2023. Last year, the Cirebon-centric company managed to record sales of IDR 2.1 trillion, an increase of 42% from the previous year's achievement of IDR 1.4 trillion.

This sales growth also resulted in a net profit of IDR 68 billion. This achievement jumped 263% from the previous year, where in 2022 the company still recorded a net loss of IDR 42 billion.

"Currently, the performance of PT PG Rajawali II Cirebon is getting better along with various improvements and innovations in the on farm and off farm sectors that have been carried out," he explained.

The achievement of this positive performance, according to Sis Apik, is in line with the improvement in the company's operational performance. In 2023 the area of sugar cane managed by PT PG Rajawali II increased by 13 percent, from 15 thousand ha in 2022 to 17 thousand ha in 2023. The achievement of redements has also increased.

"Today's average rendemens reached 7.4 percent. One of the sugar factories managed by PT PG Rajawali II, namely PG Jati Tujuh, even reached a 7.6 percent rendement," he said.

According to him, improving the operational performance of sugar factories has become a concern ID FOOD as a Holding.

"Given that good operational performance will have an impact on increasing sugar productivity and its derivative products as the main source of income for sugar factories," he added.

Sis Apik said that the positive performance trend of PT PG Rajawali II will continue to be improved. In 2024, ID FOOD targets PT PG Rajawali II to achieve a 7.5 percent rendement with a total sugar production of 84 thousand tons, an increase of 27 percent from production in 2023.

Furthermore, he hopes that the improvement in the performance of the only sugar company in West Java can have an effect on the development and growth of the surrounding community.

"The improvement in the performance of sugar factories is expected to have a double effect, including growing trust as well as encouraging the interest of the surrounding community to grow sugar cane. Of course, one of the capital towards self-sufficiency in sugar is the growing interest of the community in growing sugar cane," he said.

According to him, efforts to encourage people's interest in growing sugar cane are part of ID FOOD's priority program. For this reason, the ID FOOD Group Sugar Factory continues to aggressively improve the sugarcane partnership program with sugarcane farmers around the PG area.

"In the last four years, the implementation of the sugarcane partnership of PT PG Rajawali II has recorded an increasing number of community participation and land area. This marks that public trust is growing and the partnership program also provides benefits for welfare," he explained.

In 2020 the sugarcane partnership program PT PG Rajawali II managed to attract 3,206 partner farmers. Then in 2021 it increased to 3,441 partner farmers, in 2022 it rose to 4,442 partner farmers, and in 2023 it will grow again to 5,070 partner farmers. In 2024, it is targeted that the participation rate will increase to around 5,135 partner farmers.

"In the future, this partnership program will continue to be improved because it is very important to establish and maintain partnerships with farmers. Farmers' partners play a role in supplying sugarcane raw materials to sugar factories, while sugar factories play a role in absorbing sugar cane harvests to improve farmers' welfare," he explained.

PT PG Rajawali II is a subsidiary of ID FOOD which currently manages 3 sugar factories, namely PG Jati Tujuh in Majalengka Regency, PG Tersana Baru and PG Sindanglaut in Cirebon Regency. The total production capacity of PT PG Rajawali II is 8,800 Tons Cane/ Day (TCD). This company also has an export quality spirit processing and ethanol factory, namely PSA Palimanan in Cirebon Regency. PSA Palimanan ethanol products are routinely exported to the Netherlands.