REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA - Known for a long time as a salt-producing area in Indonesia, the island of Madura in East Java province is now set to become the largest sugar-producing center in the country.

"Madura is known as a salt-producing area, but now, it has greater economic prospects in becoming the largest   sugar-producing center in the country," Indonesian Sugarcane Plantation Research Center (P3GI) spokesman Aris Toharisman said in Surabaya on Monday. 

Aris noted that a recent study indicated that Madura island has 250 thousand hectares. The land can be used for sugarcane plantation and constructing ten new sugar factories, each with a capacity of milling 10 thousand tons of sugarcane per day.

"Today, there are around 200 thousand hectares of sugarcane plantation in East Java with 31 factories capable of producing 1.2 million tons of sugar per year," he said.

He added that Madura could become an industrial sugar center. The sugar mills can be integrated with a sugarcane-based industrial complex producing bio-ethanol, electricity, paper, organic fertilizers, animal feed and other commercial products. The integration can be achieved on Madura Island because the average milling capacity of each sugar mill in Java is only 3.5 thousand tons of sugarcane per day, which is not enough to meet the sugar demand.

"Madura currently has 1,500 hectares of sugarcane plantations. This year we hope to increase it by 4,000 hectares because it is supported by the land development program and the State Budget funds," Aris said.

He pointed out that a new sugar mill would be built in Madura in 2016, and the sugarcane plantation area was predicted to increase by 10 thousand hectares.

Compared to Java islands potential of sugarcane plantation, Madura is more promising because it has adequate infrastructure support such as roads, ports, electricity, communication lines and the Surabaya-Madura (Suramadu) bridge. 

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