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.
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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.