C Java’s sugar production may not meet target

Sugar production in Central Java has failed to meet its target due to extreme weather.

“We targeted to produce 280,000 tons of sugar this year. However, by December we managed to produce only 230,000 tons,” Teguh Winarno, the head of Central Java Estate Agency, said Sunday as quoted by Tempointeraktif news portal.

He blamed extreme weather for the low sugar production.

Although production has not met the target, the agency will still expand  the total area of sugarcane plantations in Central Java.

“We have opened 2,000 hectares of new sugarcane plantations,”  Teguh said, adding that previously Central Java had only a 56,500  hectares of sugarcane plantations.

The government targets to produce 4.8 million tons of sugar in 2014 to fulfill its domestic needs and to be self-sufficient in sugar.