Professor of IPB University: Refined Sugar is the Industry’s Mainstay, Domestic Production is Insufficient
Indonesia is currently the largest sugar importer in the world, overtaking China since 2016-2017. This was conveyed by Prof Nuri Andarwulan, Professor of the Department of Food Science and Technology at IPB University, in her explanation regarding the national and global sugar ecosystem.
“Until now, Indonesia still depends on imports of raw crystal sugar to meet the needs of sugar consumption and industry. Meanwhile, domestic productivity has not been able to cover the deficit that continues to occur every year,” she said in an online interview (7/10).
According to Prof Nuri, the majority of sugar circulating in the world comes from sugar cane (80 percent) and the rest from beets (20 percent). In Indonesia, the sugar production process begins with grinding sugarcane to produce sugarcane juice.
“This juice is separated from the pulp (bagasse) and then goes through an impurity removal stage to produce raw sugar or raw crystal sugar. This raw sugar is then processed into white crystal sugar (GKP) or refined sugar,” she explained.
By products from this stage include bagasse, blotong, and molasses. Bagasse is fully used as boiler fuel for sugar factories. Blotong is used as organic fertilizer, while molasses is sold to the MSG industry.
Facing Serious Problems
Prof Nuri pointed out that Indonesia is currently facing serious problems because the production of sugar for domestic consumption averages only 2,2 to 2,4 million tons. In fact, the community’s needs reach 3 million tons per year. This means that there is a shortage of around 1 million tons that must be covered through imports.
Interestingly, the sugar imported by Indonesia is not GKP ready for consumption, but raw crystal sugar. These raw crystal sugar imports need to be further processed domestically into GKP or refined sugar before they can be consumed.
“Data shows that Indonesia’s raw crystal sugar imports reached 5,2 million tons in 2022-2023, with the main supplier being Thailand, followed by Brazil, Australia, and India,” she said.
Furthermore, Prof Nuri explained that in Indonesia there are 59 sugar factories owned by State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) under PT Sinergi Gula Nusantara and 11 national private factories. However, state-owned factories only operate on average 160 days per year, while private factories can operate up to 320 days per year.
“The productivity of state-owned factories is also low because many use old machines that are hundreds of years old, while private factories have modern machines with greater capacity,” she said.
“How can we reduce imports if the productivity of domestic factories is very low?” Prof Nuri continued to emphasize.
She also highlighted overlapping regulatory policies. GKP and raw crystal sugar are regulated by the Ministry of Agriculture, while refined crystal sugar is regulated by the Ministry of Industry, and its trade is supervised by the Ministry of Trade.
“As a result, the distribution of consumption sugar often experiences problems, including the leakage of refined sugar into the consumption market to cover supply shortages,” she said.
In addition, the GKP quality standard in SNI was revised in 2020. From previously there were two quality classes (GKP 1 and GKP 2), now it is changed to only one standard. This standard revision, according to Prof Nuri, still does not show a quality commensurate with refined crystal sugar.
“The food industry needs refined sugar because its quality is whiter and cleaner than GKP. White crystal sugar cannot be used by the industry because the color is not uniform and affects the taste of the product,” she concluded. (AS) (IAAS/KQA)
