Surabaya, E Java (Antara) - National sugar production is expected to drop by 10-20 percent this year compared with the same period last year, an official said. With only three months of the milling season remaining, national sugar production is not likely to exceed 2.3 million tons, the director of the Indonesian Sugar Plantation Research Center, Aris Toharisman, stated here on Tuesday. "The national sugar production during last year's milling season had reached 2.6 million tons. This year, production will fall below that," Aris said. He noted that the country had experienced heavy rainfall well into the middle of August this year, which had hampered the production of sugarcane. Under normal conditions, the rains would dissipate before the start of the dry milling season in May and June. Aris noted that the 2.3 million tons of sugar that will be produced could only meet 40 percent of domestic demand. In 2011, the national sugar production was recorded at 2.26 million tons, slightly lower than that in 2010, which stood at 2.28 million tons. He attributed the decline in sugar production to anomalies in the climate cycle. (*)


Editor : Didik Kusbiantoro
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