Indonesia's sugar consumption is expected to rise by as much as 4 percent this year due to a growing population and rising demand for soft drinks, biscuits and bakery products, a refiner said on Tuesday. While the world's top raw sugar importer expects overseas purchases in 2013 to drop 13 percent from a year ago, there are expectations that shipments may increase later in the year depending on the consumption by the food and drinks industry.
"Indonesian consumption will be roughly about 5.2 million tonnes this year, which maybe about 3 to 4 percent more than last year. We feel consumption will go up by about 2 to 3 percent every year," said Manoj Marar, head of Dharmapala Usaha Sukses, a unit of Singapore commodities firm Olam International Ltd.
The estimate is based on what the people from the food and beverage industry are saying, Marar said. "They are projecting a requirement of 2.7 million tonnes, which has grown from 2.2 million tonnes maybe two years back," Marar told reporters on the sidelines of a sugar conference in Singapore. "It's likely Indonesia will give more import licences," said Marar, whose Java-based refiner has an annual capacity of 250,000 tonnes. Earlier this month, Indonesia issued raw sugar import permits for 240,000 tonnes as it looks to make up a shortfall in domestic sugarcane supplies.