60% of Indonesia's sugarcane land is owned by smallholder farmers.

Sugarcane farmers and entrepreneurs are urging the government to immediately revoke the 10 percent Value Added Tax (VAT) on sugarcane. This VAT is considered burdensome for sugarcane farmers because the price of sugar in the market is also set at the highest retail price (HET).

Data from the Directorate General of Agriculture estimates that the area of sugarcane land in Indonesia in 2016 reached 482,239 hectares (ha). Of this amount, the area of sugarcane land belonging to people's plantations reached 291,000 ha or approximately 60 percent of the national sugarcane land. This produced 1.7 tons or 63 percent of total domestic sugarcane.

The area of sugarcane land from large private estates (PBS) reached 113,000 ha or approximately 23 percent of the total domestic sugarcane land, with a production of 652,000 tons. Meanwhile, sugarcane land from large state-owned plantations (PBN) covered 78,000 ha or 16 percent of the total land, with a production of 361,000 tons.