AGRICULTURE MINISTER ADMITS MISCALCULATION IN REFINED SUGAR

Jakarta, Sept 2 (ANTARA) - Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono admitted that there was an oversupply of refined sugar in the country due to sugar consumption miscalculations.

Anto, who is also chairman of the Indonesia Sugar Council (DGI), said here on Tuesday he made a calculation of the national sugar production in 2008 which reached 2.9 million tons, while the national consumption reached only 2.7 million tons.

However, he added, the result of a calculation conducted by Sucofindo, it was predicted that domestic sugar consumption reached 3.1 million tons, prompting sugar imports.

"We are sure that our calculations are correct. If since the beginning our calculation is incorrect, the result will be a sugar glut. In this case, there is a double counting," he said.

After referring to the Sucofindo's estimation, he added, it turned out to be a glut of 400,000 tons in sugar production.

According to him, domestic industry's sugar consumption reached 1.6 million tons, which included 0.7 million tons of imported sugar.

On the occasion, Anto also said the DGI would immediately make a recalculation of import duty and quota for imported raw sugar in a bid to offset the supply of sugar in the country.
It was also reported that the raw sugar production stood at 3.5 million tons, while the food and soft drink industries need 2 to 2.5 million tons of the commodity.

In the meantime, a license permits to import only 1.75 million tons of raw sugar.