Soe To Set Up Modern Sugar Mill

Jakarta, Jan 4 (ANTARA) - The Ministry of State-owned Enterprises (SOE) will set up a modern sugar mill called PG Glenmore, which is expected to begin commercial operations in 2015, a deputy minister said. "PG Glenmore will feature cutting-edge technology and will be the first state-owned modern sugar factory," said Zamkhani, the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises� deputy minister for primary industry affairs, here on Thursday. The construction of the factory, which would require an investment of Rp1.6 trillion, began in mid-December last year. The production capacity of the sugar mill will be 6,000 tonnes of canes per day. Zamkhani noted that PT Glenmore was a subsidiary of PTPN III, XI and XII plantation companies. �The raw materials will come from 8,000 hectares of sugar cane plantation,� he said. In order to make the country self-sufficient in sugar, the government has set itself a target of producing 5.7 million tonnes of sugar per annum by 2014. Indonesia`s sugar production never exceeded 2.7 million tonnes per annum in the past 10 years. The government revised down its sugar production target from 2.7 million tonnes to 2.57 million tonnes in 2011. And last year, too, it sharply cut its production target to 2.6 million tonnes from 4.4 million tonnes. In order to achieve its sugar production target of 5.7 million tonnes by 2014, the government should expand its sugar cane plantations to approximately 850,000 hectares from the present 450,000 hectares. According to Ismed Hasan Putro, the president director of PT Rajawali Nusantara Indonesia (RNI), an agro-industry company that has at least 10 sugar mills in Java, the government needs to bring an additional 400,000 hectares of land under sugar cane cultivation if it wants to achieve its 2014 target. Based on official data, the country`s annual sugar production during the 2002-11 period never exceeded 2.7 million tonnes. The peak production of 2.7 million tonnes was recorded in 2008.