ore than 25 private and state trading firms have agreed to buy 412,000 tons of sugar stored at state logistics agency Bulog’s warehouses and sell it to the public at a government-set price ceiling.
Indonesia Sugar Entrepreneurs Association (APGI) chairman Pieko Njoto Setiadi said the group’s appointed members have agreed on the price of Rp 11,000 (81 US cents) per kilogram and sell to the public at Rp 12,500 per kilogram.
Bulog has 412,000 tons of sugar stored at its warehouses across the archipelago, 80,000 tons of which are still wet so they need to be reprocessed in the government’s appointed refineries.
Read also: Fighting for sugar imports“We’ve been selling the sugar at mandated price and will continue to do so,” he said after the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between 27 major sugar sellers and Bulog, witnessed by Trade Minister Enggartisto Lukita, on Monday evening.
The Trade Ministry introduced in April a sugar price ceiling of Rp 12,500 per kg, which led to a persistent downward trend in sugar price to around Rp 12,900 per kg recently from Rp 14,100 per kg in January.
Bulog, meanwhile, was appointed by the Office of the Coordinating Economic Minister in August to buy sugar at a reference price of Rp 9,700 per kilogram from farmers and factories to help stabilize sugar prices in the country. (bbn)
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