Agricom.id, JAKARTA - Ministry of Agriculture Indonesian Republic takes every side to contribute and fulfill the sugar nationally. Minister of Agriculture, Syahrul Yasin Limpo (SYL) said that when attending webinar of National Sugar Summit 2020 Tuesday (24/11/2020).

"Sugar is one challenge for me and other ministries to be together to fulfill the needs nationally and accelerate the sugar consumption self-sufficiency,” he said, as in the official statement to Agricom.id.

He also mentioned that it needs to accelerate the availability of consumption sugar by empowering the synergy among the institutions and ministries to fulfill the availability of sugar because there have been big import values from sugar sector.

“We have three concepts to do in the future, such as, doing the good cultivation, implementing the right post-harvest management, and running the downstream process within the touch of modern mechanism and should be in the industrial level to prepare it in the international level market,” he said.

For information, the sugar needs in Indonesia reached 5,8 million tons per year. Of the numbers, 2,1 million tons were produced in the domestic while the rests depend on the imports.

In the previous, President Indonesia, Joko Widodo accompanied by SYL officially inaugurated a sugar factory in Southeast Sulawesi.

The capacity reaches 8.000 TCD (tons canes per day) and could be increasing to be 12.000 TCD. By the capacity, the factory could produce crystal sugar up to 800 to 1.200 tons per day.

“We need to appreciate the factory because it could minimize the import. It means, there would be lots to save the exchange and empower the transaction balance,” Joko Widodo said. (A2)