PTPN'S SUGAR STOCK NOW ONLY 200,000 TONS

Jakarta, Aug 26 (ANTARA) - State Enterprises Minister Sofyan Djalil said sugar-making company PTPN had no plan to launch sugar market operations because it only had 200,000 tons of sugar in stock.

"PTPN has no plan yet to launch market operations because its sugar stocks are now small," the minister said at his office here on Wednesday.

The minister said the sugar stocks that had remained at PTPN factories totaled 200,000 tons only because sugar production had been auctioned and controlled by the market.

"Should PTPN conduct a market operation, we still have to look at its technical implementation," the minister said.

The minister made the remarks in connection with the increase in the sugar price in the market in the current fasting month.

Djalil said that sugar price had been increasing in the current fasting month due to the fact that most of sugar stocks had been in the hands of the third parties.

"The already milled sugar canes have been auctioned and are now in the hands of the third parties. In the meantime, the price of sugar in the international market is also on the rise," the minister said.

This happened a time when the milling season is still two months away from now, he said.

"The 200,000 stocks are a national figure, of which 70 percent belong to PTPN and the remaining 30 percent are owned by farmers," he added.

He said that so far the need for sugar at home could not be met with production at home.

According to Bayu Krisnamurthi, a deputy to the chief economic minister, the government will soon launch sugar market operations as the price of this commodity has risen from Rp7,000 per kg to Rp9,000 per kg.

Sugar bazaars will be held in a number of places throughout Indonesia. "Basically we support the launching of sugar bazaars but I have no idea yet about its technical implementation," he said.