INDONESIA: IndoAgri seeking more sugar land
Published: 09/03/2010, 12:34:08 PM
IndoAgri, a unit of giant noodle maker Indofood Sukses Makmur, will also acquire more land for sugar in Indonesia, pitting it against the world's biggest listed palm oil firm, Wilmar, which is also expanding its sugar landbank, according to Reuters.
"Sugar is certainly an area that we will expand further in Indonesia, and we are in a process of acquiring more land," Mark Wakeford, IndoAgri's CEO, told Reuters in an interview.
"Indonesia is importing around 2 million tonnes a year, so there are domestic opportunities to satisfy that demand... Indonesia is currently only producing 60% of its doemstic demand."
The US$2.5 billion company, which has a combined landbank of more than half a million hectares in Indonesia, currently has around 11,500 hectares planted to sugar in South Sumatra and will boost that to 18,500 hectares by the end of next year.