Minister of Agriculture ensures upstream-downstream improvements to achieve sugar self-sufficiency

Minister of Agriculture Andi Amran Sulaiman emphasized the government's commitment to accelerating the realization of national sugar self-sufficiency through comprehensive improvement steps from upstream to downstream.

"We are carrying out total improvements from upstream to downstream," said the Minister of Agriculture during a working visit with Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka at the mass harvest and sugarcane planting event at the Jolondoro Sugarcane Plantation, Banyuwangi, East Java.

The Minister of Agriculture said that improvements were made starting from seeds, planting patterns, downstream systems, to sales aspects.

"The goal is simple: farmers must be given room to profit. If farmers suffer losses, they will be discouraged from planting," said Amran as reported in Jakarta.

The Ministry of Agriculture has prepared a National Sugar Self-Sufficiency Roadmap that targets self-sufficiency in consumer sugar by 2028 and total self-sufficiency, including industrial and bioethanol needs, by 2030.

However, the Minister of Agriculture emphasized that efforts will be made to achieve the target more quickly, along with strong encouragement from President Prabowo Subianto and Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka.

"If we fix our sales system so that farmers profit, then they will definitely continue to plant. That's the logic. Therefore, we also encourage downstreaming so that the distribution and price system is fairer for farmers," he said.

Based on the initial estimate of 2025, sugar production is estimated to reach 2.901 million tons from an area of ​​around 538 thousand hectares. If referring to the average realization of 95 percent, then actual production in 2025 is predicted to reach 2.75 million tons, the highest in the last five years.

To accelerate the self-sufficiency target, the government is implementing an intensification strategy by clearing 275 thousand hectares of ratoons by 2027, accompanied by interventions with superior seeds, irrigation improvements, and targeted fertilizers.

This step will be strengthened by expanding the sugarcane area by 500 thousand hectares (200 thousand hectares of core and 300 thousand hectares of plasma) as well as the construction and reactivation of 10 sugar factories in Java and outside Java.

"Investment in this sector will create a multiplier effect, from increasing production, creating jobs, to strengthening the national economy," said the Minister of Agriculture.

Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka conveyed that sugar commodities are now a serious concern for the government. After seeing the success in the rice sector, the government is optimistic that it can achieve sugar self-sufficiency by 2027 at the latest.