Smallholder Sugarcane Farmers Will Come to the Ministry of Trade for Asking HET Sugar

INDUSTRY.co.id - Jakarta- National Board of Mainstay of Indonesian Smallholder Sugarcane Farmer (APTRI) will come to the Ministry of Trade to question the highest retail price (HET) of Rp12,500 / Kg which is considered to be detrimental to sugar cane farmers.

"We urge the government, namely the Ministry of Trade (Kemdag), to fix the rules on sugar trading in Indonesia.HET set at Rp 12,500 / kg is very detrimental to farmers," said Chairman of DPN APTRI Soemitro Samadikoen in a press release received in Jakarta, Thursday (3/8/2017)

Regulation of the Minister of Trade No. 27 / M-DAG / PER / 5/2017 stipulates the reference price of Rp9.100 / kg sugar palm (HPP) and sugar HET at consumer level Rp12.500 / Kg.

Soemitro said that in the APTRI National Working Meeting (Rakernas) on July 20 to 21, 2017, a recommendation was made to ask the Minister of Trade to raise CPO of sugar palm to Rp11,000 / kg compared to the regulation in the Minister of Trade Regulation Rp9.100 / Kg. It also asked to raise the sugar HET to Rp14,000 from the current regulation of Rp. 12,500Kg.

"The increase is very reasonable because farmers need to benefit from the sugar cane business for a year, while the traders are also profitable and also not burdensome to consumers," he said.

He mentioned, on April 11, 2017, DPN APTRI has sent a letter to the Minister of Trade and proposed that the HPP sugar miller peanut season 2017 of Rp11.76 per kg. The proposal is based on the amount of cost of production (BPP) of Rp 10,600 / kg with the assumption of sugar cane production on 100 tons / ha plant cane and 7.5 percent yield, while in ratoon sugar cane production 90 tons / hectare with 7 percent yield.

Described, BPP has calculated the cost of seeds, fertilizers, tractors, and increase production costs. The increase in production costs, among others, tuition costs, labor costs, and the cost of logging due to rising fuel prices.

Meanwhile, Secretary General of DPN APTRI Nur Khabsyin asserted, basically the reference price or sugar HET policy is not right, because sugar (including sugar farm) does not include goods that get subsidy from the government.

"Therefore, the government should not press the market price," he said.

According to Khabsyin, if you want cheap sugar for the people, then the government should subsidize the price as done on fertilizer HET. With the presence of sugar HET means sugar cane farmers who actually subsidize the price of sugar to the people.

"The government should just set the HPP of sugar palm as the base price of the calculation in the sugar cane business, so we ask the Minister of Trade to discuss and accept us for the audience," he said.