By Aris Toharisman (ISRI), Triantarti (ISRI) Fadil Hasan (ISRI)
Valuable lessons can be learned from the long history of the Indonesian sugar industry. The Indonesian sugar industry was established four centuries ago. It became the second largest sugar exporter after Cuba. In 1930 Indonesia produced 2.9 million tons of sugar, of which 2.2 million tons were exported to Europe. The average sugar yield in Indonesia was approximately 14.8 t/h. However, the situation has changed drastically. Recently, Indonesia has become one of the largest sugar importers. In 2012, the average sugar yield was 5.9 t/h, only 40% of that achieved 80 years ago.
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