"We suggest that the government renovate existing old sugar mills soon. But if it doesn`t want to do that, the government can cooperate with the private sector," said Soemitro.
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The government should renovate 150-year-old state-owned sugar mills in the country to increase national sugar production, Chairman of the Indonesian Sugar Cane Farmers Association, Soemitro Samadikoen, said.

"We suggest that the government renovate existing old sugar mills soon. But if it doesn`t want to do that, the government can cooperate with the private sector," said Soemitro, after a discussion themed "Format of National Sugar Sovereignty" at the Megawati Institute here Wednesday.

Soemitro said the first priority was to renovate sugar mills in Java because soil on this island was suitable for sugar cane cultivation.

"Indonesia has approximately 56 state sugar mills, but it is not necessary to renovate all of the mills for now," said Soemitro, adding that after one sugar mill had been renovated it could step up its output and then the government could start renovating other mills.

"We have a land area of 440 thousand hectares which is only able to produce 2.3 million tons of sugar, but if the existing mills in Indonesia are renovated, I think, we can produce 4.2 million tons," he said.

The government itself has set the production target for local sugar planters at 5.7 million tons in 2014, and would increase the sugar cane plantation area to more than 350 thousand hectares.

Meanwhile, on the same occasion, an agriculturalist, Bustanul Arifin, also said the discourse on revitalizing state-owned sugar mills needs to be realized in 2012 if the government wants to achieve sugar self-sufficiency in 2014.

"Honestly, the stakeholders really understand that revitalizing and restructuring state-owned sugar mills will have an enormous impact on sugar cane production," said Bustanul.

According to Bustanul, the stakeholders were the ministries of agriculture, trade, industry, state-owned enterprises, the Logistics Agency (Bulog), state-plantation companies and other business actors.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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