Indonesia seeks help from NSI for expanding its sugar industry, gets assurance in return
Kanpur: Indonesia has sought support of National Sugar Institute (NSI), Kanpur for taking its sugar industry forward. The matter was discussed through video-conferencing between director, National Sugar Institute, Professor Narendra Mohan and director, Indonesian Sugar Research Institute, Muhamad Mustangin.
The Indonesian delegation desired to know the role of NSI in growth and development of the Indian sugar industry. “Our sugarcane and sugar productivities are much lower and to cope up our sugar requirements, we are importing sugar from Thailand and India,” said Muhamad Mustangin.
“Since, NSI, Kanpur has played a pivotal role for the development of Indian sugar industry, we would like to develop our institute on the similar model. We also look forward towards seeking support of NSI in identifying the grey areas and modernization of Indonesian sugar industry so as to be self-sustainable. We also desire that NSI may help us in conducting skill development programmes,” he added.
Assuring all co-operation, NSI director highlighted various activities of the institute and broad areas to work upon.
“Indonesia shall have to work on all fronts, farm and factory productivity, utilization of by-products, energy and water conservation. The sugarcane yield and sugar recovery in Indonesia is about 50-55 tonnes/hectare and about 8.5-9.0% respectively, which is about 30% lower in comparison to India. Indonesia is producing only about 2.5 million tonnes of sugar as against its domestic consumption of about 7.0 million tonnes. Thus, there is tremendous scope for improving the Indonesian sugar industry”, said Director NSI.
“There is acute shortage of specifically trained manpower in Indonesian sugar industry and thus NSI can address the issue by conducting customized training programmes for in-service personnel”, said Prof Mohan further.
The two institutes agreed in principle for further co-operation and collaboration and for which a MoU shall be signed after seeking approval of the respective ministries.
