Minister Of Agriculture Syahrul: Innovation And Collaboration Are Important To Reduce Dependency To Sugar Imports

Sugar Import

JAKARTA - Minister of Agriculture Syahrul Yasin Limpo emphasized that the aspect of independence through innovation and collaboration is very important to reduce dependence on food imports, in this case, sugar. According to him, in the midst of disruption and the ongoing pandemic, Indonesia's future food needs must be strived not to depend on imports.

"We must be independent, we must not depend on large imports of sugar. If imports continue, when will this country be more independent," he said in a written statement received by VOI, Saturday, December 4.

Furthermore, Syahrul considered that it needed maximum efforts from all stakeholders by prioritizing collaboration and concrete actions to be able to realize food independence through collaboration and innovation.

"The aspiration of independence must depart from the will, from innovations that we prepare better also from the collaboration that we do maximally. It is no longer possible for the Ministry, BUMN, industry, and the private sector to run alone. We must be able to make joint efforts," he said.

Syahrul said strengthening the national sugar industry was not only related to the land perspective, but also needed to increase productivity by changing varieties, industrial strategies, revitalizing sugar factories, industrial derivative products, and setting benchmarks for countries that have succeeded in producing sugar.

Therefore, Syahrul hopes that the results of the discussion from the 2021 National Sugar Summit (NSS) can be followed up and discussed with the Ministry of Agriculture to produce more concrete actions and impacts for the progress of the national sugar industry.

Expand sugarcane plantations Secretary-General of the Ministry of Agriculture Kasdi Subagyono said the Ministry of Agriculture is making efforts to further investigate the potential suitability and capability of land for sugar cane.

"We have mapped several islands for sugarcane expansion based on their suitability," he said.

He added that the Ministry of Agriculture is ready to synergize with SOEs to further identify and match SOEs' plans to develop new areas.

"So we can make more concrete spatial data to be used," he said.

For your information, the Ministry of SOEs continues to make various efforts to increase SOE sugar production. Among other things, by encouraging the development of sugar cane land to 11,000 to support self-sufficiency as well as revitalization and the establishment of new factories. Through this improvement effort, BUMN sugar production will increase by 371,000 tons in 2022, and increase by 1.1 million tons in 2024.

Based on data from the Ministry of SOEs, of the 2.3 million tons of national sugar production in 2021, the state-owned sugar factories (PG) managed by RNI and PTPN Holding Plantations contributed around 1 million tons or 46 percent of the total national production. PTPN and RNI themselves have a total of 40 operational PGs with a capacity of 146,000 Ton Cane per Day (TCD) and a total land area of 197,000 Ha. Currently, the government has officially opened the biggest sugar industry conference in Indonesia, the 2021 National Sugar Summit (NSS).

Previously, to be able to release Indonesia's dependence on sugar imports, PT Rajawali Nusantara Indonesia (Persero) or RNI, as one of the state-owned food companies, had a number of strategies to increase domestic sugar production so that it could pursue the target of self-sufficiency.

The President Director of RNI, Arief Prasetyo Adi, said that efforts to increase sugar production continue to be carried out through various approaches, both on the technical side through increasing productivity, land extensification, developing partnership patterns for sugarcane farmers, as well as expanding the involvement of research activities.

"The key is that everything is done by prioritizing collaboration with various parties," he said at the 2021 National Sugar Summit (NSS), Wednesday, December 1.

Arief said that one of the recent collaborations to improve the sugar industry was the collaboration between RNI, PTPN III, and Perhutani in preparing sugarcane cultivation governance through synergies with Pupuk Indonesia, Bank BRI, Jasindo, Askrindo in the 'Prosperous' program.

"The target for the 2022 planting season, covering an area of 40,000 hectares, is accompanied by an increase in the quantity and quality of sugarcane raw materials, and the important goal is to increase the income and welfare of farmers," he said.