Indonesias sugar cane crushing season is on track to start in early April given favourable weather, with output seen rising nearly 4 percent from a year ago, industry officials said on Thursday. Indonesias sugar cane output is estimated to rise to 33.5 million tonnes this year, up from 32.3 million tonnes in 2008, said Colosewoko, an official at the Indonesian Sugar Association.
Southeast Asias biggest economy will hold parliamentary elections on April 9, but the polls should not delay the crushing as workers at cane plantations and mills do not need to take time off to vote, he said. "We will start cane crushing as usual in early April with no delay. The weather is supportive as we do not see much rain now," Erry Iswadi, an official at state plantation PTP Nusantara VII in Lampung, said. The firm was planning to crush about 4,000-4,800 tonnes of sugar cane per day, meaning the crushing season may last for about 180 days, said Iswadi.
"We will be ready to start selling sugar a week after the start of crushing," the official said, adding that the company was still negotiating selling prices with its sole distributor, the state procurement agency Bulog. The southern Sumatra province of Lampung accounted for about 30 percent of nation-wide white sugar output in 2008. Cane crushing in the countrys top producing province of East Java, which accounted for about 63 percent of 2008 output, will start in May.
Indonesia sugar millers only produce white sugar for household consumption, which is estimated to rise to 2.8 million tonnes from 2.57 million tonnes in 2008, the association has said. Indonesias record white sugar output was about 3 million tonnes set in 1930, long before the country declared its independence in 1945, Colosewoko said. Indonesia has said it aims to freeze white sugar imports for household use this year to ease swelling domestic stocks.