PTPN Boss Asks Government To Supervise Sugar Import Activities When Global Prices Drop

Business Actors Handoko Hendroyono (left), Director of Business Transformation of Pupuk Indonesia Panji W. Ruky (center) and President Director of PTPN III Mohammad Abdul Ghani (right) (Photo: Mery Handayani/VOI)

JAKARTA - President Director of PTPN III, Abdul Ghani asked the government to oversee sugar import activities, especially when world sugar prices were experiencing a drastic decline, aka falling.

Abdul Ghani admitted that he was worried that imports would increase when global sugar prices fell. If this happens, he continued, this condition could disrupt the price of farmers' sugar cane in the country.

"We have asked the government when the price of sugar abroad is too low, there must be protection so that sugar does not enter Indonesia too easily," he said in a discussion on Strengthening SOEs Towards Golden Indonesia in Sarinah, Jakarta, Monday, September 23.

Ghani did not deny, to reduce dependence on sugar imports, it is necessary to increase the productivity of sugarcane farmers in the country. Currently, the productivity of sugarcane farmers is only 5 tons per hectare (ha).

100 years ago, in 1930, in Java there were 102,000 hectares (ha) of sugar cane plants with 3 million tons of production. This means that it can be 15 tons per ha. Then since then, there has been a continued decline," said Ghani.

Ghani believes that Indonesia can no longer import sugar consumption. However, with a note, the productivity of domestic sugar cane farmers must be increased.

"Currently, our sugarcane plant area is above 500,000 ha. If we look at it 100 years ago, it produces 7.5 million tons. If our productivity is now the same as 100 years ago, we don't need to import sugar. We can even export it, this is the picture," said Ghani.

Furthermore, Ghani admitted that PTPN already has a program to increase farmer productivity, from 5 tons per ha, to 8 tons per ha. He said to achieve that target, PTPN will supply the best sugar cane varieties to local farmers to apply agricultural technology.

"So in the next four years we will build farmers starting to give good varieties, build good agricultural technology, and repair our sugar factories (PG)," said Ghani.

Ghani said that his party targets the productivity of sugarcane farmers to increase in 2028. That way, he said the cost of production could be reduced by 50 percent from Rp. 12,000 to Rp. 6,000.

"When farmer productivity increases by 50 percent, then the production cost is IDR 6,000, farmers will automatically multiply their income, that's where maybe we ask our farmers to lower their sugar prices so that consumers get good sugar prices," he said.

Not only that, Ghani said PTPN also plans to increase the cane planting area from 70,000 ha to 100,000 ha. This target will be achieved by building a rice field irrigation facility, along with the reservoir built by the government.

"We are also developing reservoirs, because in our agriculture the issue of water is also heavy. We also encourage the government to build reservoirs, but from the PTPN side we build reservoirs so that farmers can face the dry season," he explained.