Alok Sinha takes over as FCI head

NEWS DIGEST

Alok Sinha, a 1973-batch Indian Administrative Services officer, on Wednesday took charge as Food Corp. of India's Chairman and Managing Director, a government release said.

Sinha has taken charge from Alok Dubey, who has been posted to Punjab as the State Election Commissioner.

Before joining Food Corp, Sinha was the Additional Secretary in the agriculture ministry. During his earlier stint with the Food Corp., Sinha was posted as the zonal manager for northern region for four years, the release said.

Indonesia sugar imports may rise

Indonesia's raw sugar imports by industrial sugar producers may rise by 22.6 per cent to 1.52 million tonne in 2007 to meet growing domestic demand from the food and beverage industry, a senior industry official said on Wednesday.

Raw sugar imports of 1.52 million tonne will be used to produce 1.35 million tonne of industrial white sugar for the industry, Melvin Korompis, chairman of the Indonesian Refined Sugar Association (AGRI), told Reuters on the sidelines of the opening ceremony of two refined sugar factories in Banten, West Java.

In 2006, domestic industrial sugar producers imported 1.24 million tonne of raw sugar which were processed into 1.1 million tonne of industrial white sugar.

"Domestic demand for industrial white sugar is rising this year because of a projected decline in output of plantation white sugar and also growing sugar consumption," said Korompis.

Indonesia has five industrial sugar producers with total installed capacity of 2.18 million tonne a year. Indonesia will import raw sugar from several countries including Brazil, Australia, South Africa, Mozambique, Guatemala and neighbouring Thailand, he said.

Indonesia, Southeast Asia's largest sugar buyer, consumed 4.2 million tonne of sugar in 2006 for industrial and household use, while domestic output from plantations and industrial sugar producers totalled 3.4 million tonne.

The rest was imported. State plantation firm PT Perkebunan Nusantara XI had said the country's sugar production in 2007 may fall to 2.0-2.1 million tonne from around 2.3 million tonne in 2006 as dry weather was expected to cut output.

Rubber supplies normal in Aceh

Natural rubber and arabica coffee supplies in Aceh and North Sumatra province have returned to normal as floodwaters recede, traders and industry officials said on Wednesday.

They said shipments of the commodities were again flowing smoothly from plantations to ports and factories. Floods triggered by torrential rains in Aceh and neighbouring North Sumatra province in December killed more than 100 people, and over 200,000 are still displaced.

It also hampered delivery of palm oil, coffee and rubber from plantations to factories and ports. Both Aceh and North Sumatra produce palm oil, rubber and coffee.

"There is no problem with roads connecting Aceh and North Sumatra and also from North Sumatra's Mandailing Natal regency," an officer at the national coordinating body for disaster management told Reuters.

Last week, the floods delayed shipment of arabica coffee from Aceh's Takengon highlands to Belawan port in North Sumatra's Medan. Supplies of North Sumatra's Mandheling arabica coffee were not disrupted as floods did not hit coffee-growing areas there.

"Coffee beans from Aceh have started to flow in. Coffee shipments from Belawan port for export are also not disrupted," said Suyanto Husein, chairman of the Indonesia Coffee Exporters Association's North Sumatra branch.

Aceh and North Sumatra provinces produce the aromatic and high-value gourmet arabica beans of Aceh's Gayo Mountain and Mandheling coffee.

Shipments of rubber raw material to factories were picking up, after being delayed by floods. "Raw material will be enough for this week because rubber supplies from Aceh and Mandailing Natal regency in North Sumatra are improving," said a trader in Medan, the provincial capital of North Sumatra and a key Indonesian port for agriculture exports.

But wet weather in the province may tighten raw material supplies in coming weeks as rains hamper tapping of rubber trees.

"It's raining across the province and rubber growers can't tap their trees. Wet weather could persist until February according to weather forecasts," said Syarbaini Zain, the secretary of the Indonesia Rubber Producers Association Gapkindo) North Sumatra branch.