IMPORTED SUGAR MUST BE DISTRIBUTED SOON

Jakarta, April 13 (ANTARA) - The Trade Ministry has called on white crystal sugar importers to distribute the sugar they had imported to regions where sugar prices were still high.

"We call on importers to distribute the sugar they have imported to regions where sugar prices are still high," Director General for Internal Trade Affairs Subagyo said here on Tuesday.

He said that there were only two companies who had distributed the sugar that they had imported. The companies were state-owned logistic agency Bulog and PT Perdagangan Indonesia (PPI). These companies had distributed all of their sugar imports.

The director general said that the average price of sugar in the country was still over Rp10,000 per kg. In the meantime, local sugar mills have begun to produce and put their sugar on the market.

Therefore, Subagyo called on the importers to distribute their sugar so that sugar prices could be gradually reduced.

According to Subagyo, up to the April 15, 2010 deadline, Indonesia would have carried out 80 to 90 percent of its planned crystal white sugar imports of 500,000 tons.

"Based on our calculation, 80 percent of the allocation have been imported so that (up to April 15) it will remain only 15 percent," Subagyo told a hearing with the House Commission VI for trade and industry affairs, on Monday.

He said that the government would not extend the import license of sugar after the April 15 deadline because sugarcane harvest was expected to have reached its peak in May.

Now, harvests have begun in several sugarcane production centers. "We have set the April 15, 2010 deadline. We have to stop it after the deadline," the director general said.

The government last year, on November 24, decided to import sugar amounting to Rp500,000 tons. The period for the importation of the sugar was between January 1 and April 15, 2010.