Indonesia plans to import 240,000 tonnes of raw sugar

Indonesia, Southeast Asia's largest sugar consumer, plans to import 240,000 tonnes of raws this year to make up for a white sugar shortage before the domestic milling season starts in May, the agriculture minister said on Tuesday.
Indonesia imports sugar because domestic production cannot catch up with demand, each year buying around 2 million tonnes of raw sugar, or half of its consumption, mostly from Thailand. "We need additional white sugar supply in 2012 for one month's worth of consumption," Suswono told reporters. "We will not import white sugar, but raw sugar, as we still have idle capacity locally at sugar mills."
White sugar stocks were estimated at 598,932 tonnes between February and May, lower than consumption of 860,000 tonnes. But for the time being, only 240,000 tonnes of raw sugar will be imported, which will be processed into 220,000 tonnes of whites.
"The raw sugar will be imported by local sugar mills from February to April. White sugar, which is produced from imported raws, should be distributed in eastern Indonesia," said Suswono, without giving details. Indonesia, which consumes more than 4 million tonnes of sugar annually, said earlier this month it would not import any white sugar this year because it has enough stocks to see it through until its milling season.
Indonesia imported 118,129 tonnes of white sugar last year, from total permits for 450,000 tonnes. Dealers said it was not clear when the government would issue the permits to import 240,000 tonnes of raws. "The question is whether these imports are beyond the import quotas being discussed for this year? It's quite confusing because they have said they are not going to import any whites," said a physical sugar dealer in Singapore, who sells sugar to Indonesia.
"But now they are chasing raw sugar so that they can make whites." Indonesia imports 60 percent of its sugar from Thailand, 20 percent from Brazil and 10 percent from Australia, the Indonesian Sugar Association (AGI) says. Indonesia was once the world's second-largest exporter of sugar in the 1930s, but ageing mills, a vast network of smallholders and an influx of cheaper imported sugar put pressure on domestic production.