Jokowi Wants Indonesia to Stop Importing Sugar

Liputan6.com, Jakarta - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has officially started the "Sugarcane Bioethanol for Energy Sustainability" program which was held at the Energi Agro Nusantara (Enero) company in Mojokerto, East Java, Friday (4/11/2022).

He hoped that the program could improve and fix the quality of sugarcane produced in Indonesia. Jokowi also once again gives promises to stop importing.

"We have started planting modernly grown sugarcane and we hope that later the productivity of those plants will be better and are increasing," said Jokowi quoted from the President's Secretariat press release on Friday (4/11/2022).

According to him, Indonesia was once a sugar exporter in the 1800s. However, now Indonesia has to import sugar massively to fulfill consumer needs and domestic industries.

Therefore, Jokowi instructed the Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) Erick Thohir to improve the quality of sugarcane seeds with the best varieties in the world.

"We work together with Brazil on this and already have good experience in both sugarcane management and sugaring," he said.

Jokowi also hoped that through this program, Indonesia could be independent in food sustainability in the future, including no longer importing sugar from other countries.

"But it indeed takes time, maybe in five years. Our target is like that," Jokowi explained.

Jokowi asked farmers and sugar factories in Indonesia to work well together to achieve this target.

Moreover, the machines in the sugar factory must be updated with the ones which are more modern and use the latest technology.

"The key is the good seeds, machines that give nice yield to the farmers as well. That's the key, and of course, it requires a lot of investment, requires a lot of money, but we have intended to change this," he said.

If this sugarcane program succeeds, then the B30 palm oil can be increased again, and this will strengthen the energy sustainability of Indonesia, he continued.

Earlier, Jokowi mentioned that he will prepare 700,000 hectares to plant sugarcane. He believed that it could help Indonesia achieve sugar self-sufficiency in 5 years.

"It was conveyed earlier that if we can prepare 700,000 hectares, we will be independent, we will be self-sufficient in sugar in the next 5 years," said Jokowi after reviewing sugarcane plantations in Mojokerto Regency, East Java on Friday (4/11/2022).

According to him, these 700,000 hectares of land will be spread across several regions in Indonesia. Jokowi said that land in East Java, Central Java, and West Java is very fertile when planted with sugarcane.

Jokowi also said that the land he will prepare is not only located in Java since 700,000 is so extensive.

Jokowi said that sugarcane fertilization in Mojokerto Regency is very good because it has fertile soil. After planting sugarcane seedlings for several days, the result can already be seen.

Writer: Adelina Wahyu Martanti.

Lizsa Egeham contributed to this report.