Sugar palm - image source: Palmco
Minister of Forestry, Raja Juli Antoni, met with 7th President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo on Tuesday, March 4, 2025, discussing the government’s measure to plant sugar palm on 1.2 million hectares (ha) of land for energy and food security.
He cited Jokowi had visited Kendal, Central Java, several times with Willie Smits, a senior conservation activist who is also the main advisor to the Ministry of Forestry. They reviewed the palm forest managed by communities in Kendal, one of the largest producers of palm sugar in Indonesia.
On the other hand, Raja Juli has proposed to President Prabowo Subianto regarding the potential of sugar palm as energy security by developing sugar palm plants into ethanol fuel.
According to him, planting sugar palm on 1.2 million ha will produce 2.6 million kiloliters (kl) of ethanol and cost up to Rp100 trillion (US$6.1 billion) in production. In addition, he claims that ethanol production can slowly reduce imports of fuel oil, which costs up to Rp396 trillion per year.
"If we plant today, in six years we will no longer import (fuel) if we use sugar palm plantations. If we plant sugar palms on 1.2 million hectares at a cost of less than Rp100 trillion, we will already have ethanol that can be used to replace fuel imports," he said.
President Prabowo had approved the proposal to plant sugar palm on at least 1.2 million hectares, citing that it is in line with the government's target to achieve food and energy security.
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