Indonesia's growing ambition to produce bioethanol for fuel

DW (English)

Dreaming of becoming the Brazil of Southeast Asia, Indonesia is developing a plan to become self-sufficient in the production of bioethanol from sugar cane. The bioethanol will be mixed with fuel to produce green gasoline.

Transcript

00:00The next three months will be hard work for Mulyono.

00:07The harvest worker currently spends 12 hours a day cutting sugarcane in these fields in

00:11East Java.

00:12The raw material, helping Indonesia in its mission to become the next Brazil, a country

00:19that relies largely on bioethanol as a fuel source.

00:24For Mulyono, that is good news.

00:28I'll be happy if the plantation expands so I don't have to look for another job to make

00:33ends meet.

00:34I hope the sugar factory can operate smoothly because it'll affect my income to provide

00:39for my family.

00:42The sugarcane is processed in this factory.

00:45One thousand trucks come every day.

00:48The end products are sugar and molasses, which is then turned into bioethanol.

00:54Indonesia wants to blend 10 percent bioethanol into all its gasoline by 2030.

01:00But to do that, a lot more sugarcane is needed.

01:04The problem is, farmers are reluctant to invest in the sweet tree.

01:09There are many sugarcane farms that have been changed into housing sites, and many farmers

01:17prefer more other profitable crops.

01:20We're trying to support them so that they can stay in the sugar business.

01:25We try to facilitate the timely procurement of fertilizers, good seeds, and also financial

01:31support.

01:38This factory here has a clear idea what needs to happen to change things.

01:43This is where the only green gasoline in Indonesia is being produced.

01:48The factory could make five times the bioethanol, but their only client is the state-owned gas

01:53company Pertamina, and they don't need much of the product.

01:59Indonesia so far only has a 5 percent bioethanol mix available at gas stations.

02:09The regulatory framework around the entire bioethanol project is not yet in place.

02:15The demand from fuel producers is so low simply because there are no rules requiring

02:21them to offer a bioethanol product.

02:24If this came, we would go full in production and sell all the bioethanol.

02:31Only if there's enough raw material.

02:34Plantations like this one in Java are set to cover Papua soon too.

02:39The government intends to go big and open 700,000 hectares of new sugarcane plantations.

02:47At the moment, more than half of the country's sugar and gasoline is imported.

02:54Creating self-sufficiency in this sector would actually solve two problems at once, and generate

03:00income for harvest workers like Muliono.

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