T

he government issued an import quota of 600,000 tons of raw sugar on Thursday to fulfill the needs of the domestic refining industry in the first quarter of next year.

Industry Ministry director general for agro-industry Panggah Susanto said the quarterly quota, passed by the Trade Ministry, was published because of the urgency faced by refiners as they struggled against a shortage of raw materials.

'€œThe figure is lower than the 700,000 tons the industry requested earlier, in-line with their [purchasing contracts],'€ he said.

Panggah, however, said the government would later launch a full-year allocation for 2015, instead of another quarterly quota, after receiving calculations from several surveyors.

The Indonesian Sugar Refiners Association (AGRI) had earlier urged the government to give an import quota of 3.4 million tons of raw sugar, which after processing would be converted into 3.2 million tons of refined sugar as required by industrial consumers as well as the food and beverage industry.

In response to the request, however, the Trade Ministry said it might only allow the importation of 2.8 million tons of raw sugar next year, relying on its own estimate that food and beverage manufacturers may only need 2.6 million tons.

Trade Ministry director general for foreign trade Partogi Pa-ngaribuan did not return or respond to The Jakarta Post'€™s phone calls and text messages.

Both AGRI and the Indonesian Food and Beverage Association (Gapmmi) welcomed the new import quota, which they described as timely.

'€œThis is what we'€™ve been waiting for. We feel relieved because we can now continue supplying [the sugar] to the food and beverage industry,'€ said AGRI secretary general Riyanto over the phone.

Since October, five out of 11 refiners have held back some of their operations amid the dwindling supply in raw sugar.

Separately, Gapmmi chairman Adhi S. Lukman said the step taken boded well with expectations from the industry.

'€œWith the new import quota, hopefully there will be no hindrance for us to get raw materials so we can sustain production without worries,'€ he said in a press briefing at the Industry Ministry.

In contrast to AGRI and Gapmmi, the Sugarcane Farmers Association (APTRI) opposed the ruling, saying it would affect the price of locally produced sugarcane.

APTRI chairman Soemitro Samadikoen called on the government to maintain the ban on the sale of refined sugar by distributors and to keep on requiring direct distributions from refiners to the food and beverage industry.

'€œWe demand that the government step up its supervision against distribution as our association still receives reports of leakages of refined sugar in the household market,'€ Soemitro told the Post, referring to a recent leakage found in Medan, North Sumatra.

Soemitro added that the reasonable full-year import quota of raw sugar for next year would be between 1.8 million tons and 2 million tons and the figure could be increased at anytime whenever it fell short of the needs of the industry.