PT Sinergi Gula Nusantara or SugarCo, the sugar factory holding owned by state-owned PT Perkebunan Nusantara (PTPN) reported that consumption sugar import activity in March 2022 gradually improved after the trade authority relaxed the reference price regulation at the consumer level to Rp13,500 per liter. SugarCo CEO Aris Toharisman said importers had finished buying around 300,000 tons of consumption sugar from producing countries until March 2022. Aris said the import trend would continue to increase to reach 772,912 tons during March to May 2022. "Indeed there is an increase in import costs but the government has already raise the HET to Rp13,500 so that it will be compensated by the increase in costs and commodity prices, so imports will run smoothly again," said Aris by telephone, Wednesday (30/3/2022).
Based on trade authority records, the parity price of imported raw sugar has reached IDR 10,436 per kilogram, an increase of more than 10 percent which has recently brought the average price at the consumer level to IDR 14,600 per kilogram. Meanwhile, the price of consumption sugar on the world market has touched the figure of IDR 7,802 per kilogram on trading March 25, 2022, an increase of 51.6 percent from the position of IDR 5,145 per kilogram on an annual basis or year-on-year (yoy). The trade authority noted that the portion of sugar imports for national needs reached 64.6 percent annually. "Now, a lot of imported sugar has come in. My estimate is that more than 300,000 tons have entered, if it is predicted that by May it will be 772,912 tons," he said.
Based on reports from state-owned and private sugar factories, the total stock of granulated sugar as of March 22, 2022 was 525,421 tons with a resilience of 2.02 months. In detail, the stock of ex sugar cane is 437,922 tons and the stock of ex raw sugar is 85,691 tons. Meanwhile, the total sugar stock owned by Bulog is 1,808 tons. As previously reported, the Ministry of Trade is aware of the potential for soaring public demand for basic necessities or Bapok amid the slowing trend of the Covid-19 pandemic at the beginning of this year. The Director General of Domestic Trade at the Ministry of Trade, Oke Nurwan, said his ministry was worried that Bapok supply, which relies on import activities, would be disrupted due to increased domestic demand while prices on world markets continued to fluctuate due to geopolitical sentiments in the Eastern European region. "The Ministry of Trade continues to monitor international commodity prices and the geopolitical situation due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict which disrupts supply, especially for Bapok, which originates from imports such as soybeans and wheat flour," said Oke during a Hearing Meeting with Commission VI DPR RI, Wednesday (30/3/2022).
