Indonesia Sugar Output Rises as Household Consumption Declines
Indonesia’s sugar production rose to 2.67 million tons in 2025, driven by expanded cane area, while household consumption declined amid healthier habits. Despite this, total demand remains high due to industry use, keeping imports elevated at 3.93 million tons, highlighting continued reliance on global suppliers despite improving domestic output.
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – Indonesia’s Deputy Head of the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) Sonny Harry Budi Utomo Harmadi stated that national sugar production has increased while consumption has decreased. He mentioned that this reflects improvements in food security as well as a shift in the consumption patterns of the population towards a healthier direction.
“Interestingly, our sugar consumption tends to decrease over time, including per capita consumption,” said Sonny during a working meeting with the House of Representatives Commission VI in Jakarta on Wednesday, April 8, 2026, as quoted from Antara.
He stated that national sugar production in 2025 reached 2.67 million tons, an increase from the range of 2.47 million tons in 2024, and 2.23 million tons in 2023.
“One of the supporters of the increase in sugar production in 2025 is the expansion of our sugar cane planting area,” he said.
He mentioned that the increase in production was driven by the expansion of sugar cane planting areas, which reached 563,000 hectares in 2025, up from 521,000 hectares the previous year.
The spread of sugar cane planting areas is concentrated in several main provinces such as East Java, Lampung, Central Java, South Sumatra, and West Java which are the national production centers.
In line with the planting area, the distribution of white crystal sugar production also follows a similar pattern in various main producing provinces that support a significant increase in national production.
Meanwhile, household sugar consumption is recorded at around 1.4 million tons, or close to 1.5 million tons nationally in meeting the daily needs of the population.
Interestingly, the household sugar consumption trend shows a decrease compared to previous years, with the latest consumption figure at around 1.46 million tons, reflecting a change in consumption patterns.
However, he did not specify the amount of sugar consumption in households over the past two or three years. However, he emphasized that there was a decrease in sugar consumption at the household level.
He said that per capita sugar consumption also experienced a decrease to around 5.15 kilograms per person per year, in line with the consumption trend of other commodities such as salt which also decreased. Information shows that per capita sugar consumption in Indonesia in 2023 averaged 5.8 kilograms per person per year.
According to Sonny, the decrease is suspected to be influenced by the public’s increasing awareness of healthy living and a shift in consumption towards processed foods produced by the industry and the service sector.
“So they don’t buy sugar directly but use processed foods produced by either the industry or restaurants,” he explained.
Household sugar consumption only accounts for about 23.13 percent of the total national sugar use, showing the dominance of sugar use in other sectors outside direct consumption by the public.
The processing industry sector is the largest user of sugar with a volume reaching almost 3.9 million tons, reflecting the high activity of sugar-based industries in Indonesia throughout 2025.
In addition, the hotel, restaurant, and catering (Horeca) sector also contributed over 970,000 tons of sugar use as part of the consumption needs of the public service.
Overall, total national sugar consumption in 2025 reached 6,330,690 tons, reflecting the high demand for sugar in various economic sectors and public consumption.
Despite the increase in production, Indonesia still imported 3.93 million tons of sugar in 2025, with the main supply coming from Brazil, Thailand, and Australia.
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Source : Tempo.co
