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Sugar auction further delayed to January
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Field workers harvest sugarcane in Malang, East Java. (JP/Aman Rochman)
T
he Trade Ministry announced on Tuesday that there would be a further delay of the industrial sugar auction to Jan. 8, 2018 in a bid to attract more micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and cooperatives to become buyers in the program.
“The number of MSMEs buyers should be increased because the goal of the auction is to guarantee [fair-priced] supplies for MSMEs,” said Futures Exchange Supervisory Board (Bappebti) head Bachrul Chairi in a statement issued Tuesday.
He said the government would carry out dissemination activities to attract more MSMEs to take part in the auction program. As of Sept. 26, 310 MSMEs and cooperatives and 150 big firms, mostly food and beverage (F&B) makers, had registered as buyers.
Read also: Minister slams F&B firms for objecting to sugar auction planThe delay is a result of a coordination meeting between Trade Minister Enggartiasto Lukita and Coordinating Economic Minister Darmin Nasution last Friday.
This is the second postponement after the auction was initially delayed to October from June after rising objections from big F&B firms.
Big F&B firms think the auction will add to sugar procurement costs as it uses a third party or auction operator, compared to existing direct business to business (B2B) transactions.
Previously, the Indonesia Food and Beverages Producers Association (Gapmmi) and Trade Ministry signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) after businesspeople agreed with the auction system as long as it did not add to the length of the procedure.
Under the MOU, businesspeople are allowed to conduct direct B2B transactions as long as the transactions are reported to the ministry. (bbn)
