Sugar farmers complained about the low price of their sugar and the low productivity of their sugar plantation and sugar factories of being too old and in efficient.
Jember (ANTARA News) - President elect Joko Widodo (Jokowi) pledged on Tuesday to stop imports of sugar if imports would hurt sugar farmers.

"If sugar is sufficiently available in the country, we certainly stop imports," he told thousands of farmers at an informal meeting organized by chairman of the Indonesian Association of Sugar Farmers (APTRI) Arum Sabil in the village of Tanggul Kulon, Jember.

A farmer Ahmad, from Blora, Central Java, asked Jokowi to stop sugar imports as imports would cause marketing problem for sugar farmers.

Sugar farmers complained about the low price of their sugar and the low productivity of their sugar plantation and sugar factories of being too old and in efficient.

Another farmer Rupiah, from Semboro, Jember, farmers sugar had been lower than the reference price of Rp8,500 per kilogram.

Jokowi said his government would soon address the problem faced by sugar farmers and he spoke about possibility of subsidy for sugar farmers.

He said his visit to Jember was to see the difficulties being faced by sugar farmers in the district.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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