Jakarta: Indonesia is increasing the area under sugar cultivation to achieve self-sufficiency in the next five years apart from focusing on ethanol production based on sugarcane, said President Joko Widodo on Friday.
We aim to expand the area under sugarcane cultivation to 700,000 hectares (1.73 million acres), he said while inspecting a sugarcane plantation owned by ethanol producer Energy Agro Nusantara owned by state plantation firm PTPN X.
“We will be self-sufficient in sugar production if we achieve this target,” he added.
At present 180,000 hectares of area are under cane cultivation in the country.
After achieving self-sufficiency in sugar production, we will focus on increasing ethanol production starting with E5 blending, he said. After blending 5% ethanol with fossil fuel, the country can move forward to E10 or E20, said Jokowi.
