Important Sugar Research Articles

Policy entrepreneurs searching for the open-minded skeptic: a new approach to engagement in difficult policy areas

The necessity for reducing the run-off of nitrogen from the sugar industry into Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef has been recognized by governments and scientists for decades. Governments have unsuccessfully attempted to address this problem through legislation, regulation, and educating stakeholders. Officials have also understood that farmers’ resistance was a problem because reform involved asking them to change the farming methods of a lifetime. This paper examines an innovative program, the Burdekin nitrogen trial (RP20) that significantly changed industry practices in an important sugar cane growing region in Australia. One of the key challenges to achieving success was the public servants – the policy entrepreneurs – and their ability to convert a farmer – an open minded skeptic – into a policy champion. Through the adoption of a risky and previously untried collaboration strategy between public servants and this open-minded skeptic, an entrenched and formally opposing group of stakeholders began working with government to implement RP20, an innovative plan to overcome farmer resistance and reduce nitrogen runoff. As RP20 unfolded we gain insight into how the bureaucrats shed old ways of doing business, and became effective agents of policy change. These public servants grasped the window of opportunity that opened unexpectedly, reframed the policy problem and replaced the cane farmers’ skepticism and resistance with high levels of trust and rapport.

Design and Implementation of Sugarcane Growth Monitoring System based on RFID and ZigBee

Sugarcane is a kind of important sugar crops, which has been planted in large area of southern China, but traditional manual operation still applied on sugarcane planting and management at present, leading to higher labor costs. In recent years, the development of Internet of Things technologies such as wireless sensor technology, ZigBee, RFID, etc., as well as the application of technologies such as video image processing, automatic control, and 3S, etc. have provided technical supports for precision planting of agricultural production, visual management, and intelligent decision-making. This paper, relying on the Internet of things technology, has designed and implemented a set of sugarcane growth monitoring system according to the growth characteristics of sugarcane crops, this system has passed the test, and results showed that it can effectively monitor growing environment of sugarcane, such as temperature, humidity, crop plant height, thus realize the whole process management of agricultural automation.

Formation of Chiral Structures in Photoinitiated Formose Reaction

The possibility to synthesize biologically important sugars and other chiral compounds without any initiators in the UV-initiated reaction of formaldehyde in aqueous solution has been shown for the first time. An optically active condensed phase due to an sp3-hybridized carbon atom has been detected. It has been shown that this phase is formed due to the spatial cleavage of antipodes in the racemate, similar to the cleavage of enantiomers following the sign of chirality in the known experiments of Pasteur. The results have been obtained under the conditions that correspond to modern ideas about the form and vector of prebiological evolution and, therefore, can be of fundamental importance for understanding the processes of biopoiesis.

Changes in Activities of Key Enzymes in Sugarcane Stem at Different Growing Stages

Sugarcane is the most important sugar crop in China, which mainly focuses on the upper stem of the harvested land. The proper regulation of the proportion of internode elongation is the key to determine the yield and sugar. Therefore, it is of great significance to study the mechanism of the dynamic change of elongation between cane joints in order to improve the yield of sugar cane and sucrose. To investigate the biochemical mechanism of stem elongation in sugarcane, stem samples were collected at the pre-elongation stage (9-10 leaves) (Ls1), early elongation stage (12-13 leaves) (Ls2) and rapid elongation stage (15-16 leaves) (Ls3). The change trends in the activities of NAD kinase (NADK), calcium-dependent protein kinase (CDPKs), α-mannosidase, α-galactosidase, β-glucosidase, cellulase, xyloglucan endo-transglycosylase/hydrolase (XTH) and catalase (CAT) were completely consistent, showing rapid elongation stage > early elongation stage > pre-elongation stage, while the activities of β-glucosidase, peroxidase (POD) and α-glucosidase were in opposite, and the activities of calmodulin and β-mannosidase showed the same single-peak trend, and the peak was at early elongation stage. The enzyme activities of β-galactosidase and pectinase did not show significant difference at different stages. The results indicate that the elongation of internodes was closely related to the complex physiological metabolism of sugarcane, and the key enzymes play roles at different time but β-galactosidase and pectinase have little effect on internodes elongation in sugarcane.

Compositions, taste characteristics, volatile profiles, and antioxidant activities of sweet sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.) and sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.) syrups

Distinguishing the taste and aroma of different sugar syrups is important in determining their utility in the food and beverage industries and for their marketing to consumers. Herein, thick sugar syrups were prepared from the squeezed stalk juices of two important sugar crops: sweet sorghum and sugarcane. The sugar syrups were distinguished in terms of composition, taste characteristics, volatile profile, and antioxidant activity. Sweet sorghum syrup contained lower sucrose and total sugar, but retained greater amounts of minerals and organic acids than sugarcane syrup. Correspondingly, sweet sorghum syrup exhibited lower sweetness and higher saltiness and bitterness than sugarcane syrup. Sweet sorghum syrup exhibited a more complex volatile aroma composition, the major components of which were acetaldehyde, 2-methylpropanal, 3-methylbutanal, and 2-methylbutanal, followed by intermediate amounts of ketones, alcohols, and pyrazines. Additionally, sweet sorghum syrup exhibited a higher total phenolic content and superior antioxidant capabilities in oxygen radical absorbance capacity and 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazine radical-scavenging activity assays than sugarcane syrup. The results of the present study demonstrate the suitability of sweet sorghum and sugarcane syrups as sweeteners and food ingredients for consumer and industrial applications.

Impact of the 2014 Suspension Agreement on sugar between the United States and Mexico

In December 2014, the U.S. and Mexico agreed to a suspension agreement that set a $22.25/cwt import price floor on U.S. sugar imports from Mexico. A partial equilibrium trade model was developed to estimate the economic impact the agreement would have had if it had been in effect from 2008 to 2014. In years when the price floor would have been binding, on average, U.S. producers would have gained $138 million and Mexican producers would have lost $218 million. However, total Mexican welfare would have actually increased by $11.5 million. Furthermore, the average price floor that would have maximized total Mexican welfare over that period is $22.76/cwt. Also, under certain supply and demand elasticity conditions, the average price floor that would have maximized joint U.S. and Mexican producer welfare over that period is $21.91/cwt. The latter two estimates are both close to the actual price floor agreed to in the 2014 Suspension Agreement.

Molecular Identification and Genetic Diversity Analysis of Chinese Sugarcane (Saccharum spp. Hybrids) Varieties using SSR Markers

Sugarcane (Saccharum spp. hybrids) is an important sugar and renewable bio-energy crop with a high aneu-polyploidy and complex genome. The complex characteristics of sugarcane genome enhance the difficulty of selecting elite varieties in sugarcane breeding program. The objectives of this study were to establish the molecular identities (ID) of 91 nationally or provincially released Chinese sugarcane varieties and to evaluate the extent of genetic diversity among these varieties using SSR DNA markers and two fingerprinting systems, i.e., capillary electrophoresis (CE) and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE). A total of 151 SSR alleles together with 20 new alleles were detected by CE and 117 SSR alleles were detected by PAGE. Primer pairs SMC336BS, SMC31CUQ, and SMC597CS amplified more than eight alleles detectable by either CE or PAGE. Polymorphism information content (PIC) values of the SSR markers varied from 0.71-0.98 with an average of 0.90 for CE, or from 0.55-0.95 with an average of 0.84 for PAGE. UPGMA method classified the 91 varieties based on the CE data into four major groups with pair-wise similarity coefficients ranging from 58% to 95%. The genetic similarity estimates within and between the four groups varied from 0.31 to 0.87, with a mean of 0.49. Our results illustrated that the 21 SSR primer pairs in combination with CE or PAGE detection system could be a very useful working tool for molecular identification of sugarcane varieties, genetic diversity assessment, and parental selection in sugarcane breeding.

Rewiring the Glucose Transportation and Central Metabolic Pathways for Overproduction of N‐Acetylglucosamine in Bacillus subtilis

N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) is an important amino sugar extensively used in the healthcare field. In a previous study, the recombinant Bacillus subtilis strain BSGN6-PxylA -glmS-pP43NMK-GNA1 (BN0-GNA1) had been constructed for microbial production of GlcNAc by pathway design and modular optimization. Here, the production of GlcNAc is further improved by rewiring both the glucose transportation and central metabolic pathways. First, the phosphotransferase system (PTS) is blocked by deletion of three genes, yyzE (encoding the PTS system transporter subunit IIA YyzE), ypqE (encoding the PTS system transporter subunit IIA YpqE), and ptsG (encoding the PTS system glucose-specific EIICBA component), resulting in 47.6% increase in the GlcNAc titer (from 6.5 ± 0.25 to 9.6 ± 0.16 g L-1 ) in shake flasks. Then, reinforcement of the expression of the glcP and glcK genes and optimization of glucose facilitator proteins are performed to promote glucose import and phosphorylation. Next, the competitive pathways for GlcNAc synthesis, namely glycolysis, peptidoglycan synthesis pathway, pentose phosphate pathway, and tricarboxylic acid cycle, are repressed by initiation codon-optimization strategies, and the GlcNAc titer in shake flasks is improved from 10.8 ± 0.25 to 13.2 ± 0.31 g L-1 . Finally, the GlcNAc titer is further increased to 42.1 ± 1.1 g L-1 in a 3-L fed-batch bioreactor, which is 1.72-fold that of the original strain, BN0-GNA1. This study shows considerably enhanced GlcNAc production, and the metabolic engineering strategy described here will be useful for engineering other prokaryotic microorganisms for the production of GlcNAc and related molecules.

Kinetic study on Fermentation of xylose for The Xylitol Production

Xylitol is a natural sugar that has the sweetness level similar to sucrose, but has lower calorie. It is an important sugar alternate for diabetics people. Reduction of xylose is a normally method to produce the xylitol. It Conducted via chemical hydrogenation of xylose at high pressures and temperatures by reacting pure xylose with hydrogen gas using a metal catalyst. This process requires pure xylose as the raw material. Alternatively, the reduction process can be carried out via fermentation. This process does not require high purity of xylose as the raw material, and thus the oil palm empty fruit bunch (EFB) hydrolysate, without any prior pretreatment, can be used. In order to scale up the xylitol production via fermentation, kinetic study of xylitol fermentation including growth and xylitol formation kinetic using the synthetic xylose as substrate will be required. Data used in the kinetic model development were obtained from series of batch fermentations of Debaryomycess hansenii ITB CCR85 varying the initial xylose and glucose concentrations. Yeast growth could be sufficiently modeled using the Monod kinetics, whereas xylitol production could be reasonably well modelled by Luedeking Piret kinetics.

Physical–chemical treatment process optimization for high polluting dairy effluents prior fermentation

Among dairy effluents, bactofugate (B) and decreaming racking water (D) were identified as the most polluting due to their organic load content expressed in the chemical oxygen demand (156–240 g·L−1). Joining the plant wastewater, such effluents contribute to the increase of the polluting load of the wastewater treatment plant input which disturbs the treatment performance. This work proposes an upstream segregation of those dairy effluents for combined physical–chemical and biological treatment. An experimental design was proposed to investigate initial pH, applied temperature and exposure time factor effects on the thermal coagulation process. The fermentation of the resulted supernatants using Lactobacillus lactis ssp. lactis was performed. The optimized thermal coagulation pretreatment was obtained at (pH; T(°C); t(min)): 6, 60 °C and 5 min, with both (B) and (D) effluents. Resulted clarified whey sugar, protein and fat contents were assessed. The physical–chemical treatment resulted in considerable organic matter removal: 45% for (B) samples and 31% for (D) samples of proteins content and almost the total fat content. However, there is no considerable effect on the sugar content reduction, which remains responsible for the major fraction of the whey residual chemical oxygen demand (COD). Clarified whey fermentation using Lactococcus lactis ssp. lactis strain induced important sugar consumption rates. Therefore, important sugar consumption rates were recorded and the COD removal efficiency was improved. The recorded global COD removal efficiency was of about 93%. The proposed combined physical–chemical and biological processes for dairy effluents pretreatment allowed not only to reduce the effluents polluting load, but also to valorize wheys by producing valuable components.

Over-expression of mutated ZmDA1 or ZmDAR1 gene improves maize kernel yield by enhancing starch synthesis.

SummaryGrain weight and grain number are important crop yield determinants. DA1 and DAR1 are the ubiquitin receptors that function as the negative regulators of cell proliferation during development in Arabidopsis. An arginine to lysine mutant at amino acid site 358 could lead to the da1‐1 phenotype, which results in an increased organ size and larger seeds. In this study, the mutated ZmDA1 (Zmda1) and mutated ZmDAR1 (Zmdar1) driven by the maize ubiquitin promoter were separately introduced into maize elite inbred line DH4866. The grain yield of the transgenic plants was 15% greater than that of the wild‐type in 3 years of field trials due to improvements in the grain number, weight and starch content. Interestingly, the over‐expression of Zmda1 and Zmdar1 promoted kernel development, resulting in a more developed basal endosperm transfer cell layer (BETL) than WT and enhanced expression of starch synthase genes. This study suggests that the over‐expression of the mutated ZmDA1 or ZmDAR1 genes improves the sugar imports into the sink organ and starch synthesis in maize kernels.

Identification and Characterization of microRNAs from Saccharum officinarum L by Deep Sequencing

In modern sugarcane cultivars, around 70–80% of the genetic information originates from Saccharum officinarum, which contributed important sugar content traits. Although several studies have identified microRNAs in Saccharum hybrids, they have not yet been studied in S. officinarum. In this study, by deep sequencing and in silico approaches, 268 miRNA candidates were predicted in S. officinarum, and 52 were found to likely be real miRNAs based on our analysis with stringent criteria. Among these 52 miRNAs, 43 miRNAs from 26 miRNA families were found to have homologous miRNAs in public miRBase Release 21, and 9 miRNAs were identified to be novel in S. officinarum. Out of the 52 miRNAs, 6 were randomly chosen and verified by stem-loop RT-PCR. The 52 miRNAs were predicted to have 237 and 76 targets in sugarcane and sorghum, respectively, including auxin response factor, MADS-box transcription factor, zinc finger-like protein. MicroRNAs were found to be involved in critical sugarcane pathways, such as sucrose metabolism and cellulose metabolism. In addition, the first miRNA (sof-novel1) derived from the Saccharum chloroplast genome was identified. These results provide the foundation for future studies to distinguish the miRNAs from S. spontaneum and S. officinarum in Saccharum hybrid, and valuable information to further study the miRNA functions in Saccharum species.

Vapour-liquid equilibria for (water + ethanol + fructose): Experimental data and thermodynamic modelling

Fructose (1,3,4,5,6-pentahydoxyhex-2-one) is an important sugar in the global market because of its unique characteristics when compared to other sugars, which makes fructose economically attractive, even though it is not easily produced. Crystalline fructose may be produced by crystallization of its aqueous solution, with the addition of ethanol as anti-solvent. After the separation of the crystals, the recovery of (ethanol+water+fructose) mother-liquor becomes feasible. Then, a distillation step may recover ethanol, and vapour-liquid equilibrium (VLE) data for (water+ethanol+fructose) mixtures are consequently necessary, despite not being available in the literature. In this work, VLE results for (water+ethanol) and (water+ethanol+fructose) were determined using a modified ebulliometer based on vapour recirculation. VLE measurements for (water+ethanol) were used to verify the thermodynamic consistency applying the Global Area Test developed by Redlich-Kister-Herington. Group contribution activity coefficient models were selected and evaluated to predict VLE for the ternary system. S-UNIFAC, A-UNIFAC and mS-UNIFAC models were tested. mS-UNIFAC demonstrated the best results, with average absolute relative deviation between experimental data and values calculated from the model of 0.1%, 3.6%, 3.0% and 3.6% for mole fraction of ethanol vapour when 0, 10.3, 20.7 and 31.0mass percent of fructose were used.

Biocatalytic production of D-tagatose: A potential rare sugar with versatile applications

ABSTRACTD-tagatose is a naturally existing rare monosaccharide having prebiotic properties. Minimal absorption, low metabolizing energy, and unique clinical properties are the characteristics of D-tagatose. D-tagatose gained international attention by matching the purpose of alternate sweeteners that is much needed for the control of diabetes among world population. Recent efforts in understanding tagatose bioconversion have generated essential information regarding its production and application. This article reviews the evolution of D-tagatose as an important rare sugar by appreciable improvements in production results and its significant applications resulted of its unique physical, chemical, biological, and clinical properties thus considering it an appropriate product for requisite improvements in technical viability. Based on current knowledge and technology projections, the commercialization of D-tagatose rare sugar as food additive is close to reality.

Processing, physico-chemical and functional properties of carob molasses and powders

Tunisian carob pods were used to produce molasses and powders, which were then analyzed for their composional and functional properties. Molasses were made from carob juice by boiling until three different concentrations (60, 70 and 80 °Brix), while powders were prepared by microwave drying of the by-product derived from carob molasses processing at three power levels (100, 300 and 600 W). Results showed that the processed carob products exhibited interesting characteristics. Carob molasses were characterized by important reducing sugars content, dark color and functional properties with high antioxidant activity and emulsifying capacity. On the other hand, carob powders were characterized by high levels of dietary fibers, brown color and water/oil retention capacity. This study provides, for the first time, a potential valorization of the carob by-product into powder and highlights some functional properties of carob products required by food industry.

The “Regionalism vs Multilateralism” Issue in International Trade Law: Revisiting the Peru–Agricultural Products Case

1. On 31 July 2015, the Dispute Settlement Body of the World Trade Organization (WTO) adopted the panel and appellate reports on Peru—Agricultural Products.1 In this dispute, Guatemala challenged additional duties on imports of milk, maize, rice and sugar that Peru had imposed under a so-called “Price Range System” (PRS)—a stabilization mechanism for neutralizing fluctuations of international prices. The PRS enables the Peruvian government to apply variable duties additional to the tariff if the international reference prices for the subject products are lower than certain floor price levels, and tariff rebates if those reference prices are higher than certain ceiling price levels.2 The PRS operates under Supreme Decree No. 115-2001-EF published on 22 June 2001.3 2. The Appellate Body agreed with the panel that Peru violated Article 4.2 of the Agreement on Agriculture by maintaining a measure which constituted, or was similar to, a “variable import levy” that was required, under that provision, to be converted into ordinary customs duties. It also confirmed that the additional duties resulting from the PRS amounted to “other duties or charges” which were not recorded in Peru’s schedule of concessions, contrary to Article II:1(b) of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Peru countered that the PRS was in fact allowed by a free trade agreement (FTA) with Guatemala and thus represented a lawful measure, but the Appellate Body denied this claim.

Evolution and expression of the fructokinase gene family in Saccharum

BackgroundSugarcane is an important sugar crop contributing up to about 80% of the world sugar production. Efforts to characterize the genes involved in sugar metabolism at the molecular level are growing since increasing sugar content is a major goal in the breeding of new sugarcane varieties. Fructokinases (FRK) are the main fructose phosphorylating enzymes with high substrate specificity and affinity.ResultsIn this study, by combining comparative genomics approaches with BAC resources, seven fructokinase genes were identified in S. spontaneum. Phylogenetic analysis based on representative monocotyledon and dicotyledon plant species suggested that the FRK gene family is ancient and its evolutionary history can be traced in duplicated descending order: SsFRK4, SsFRK6/SsFRK7,SsFRK5, SsFRK3 and SsFRK1/SsFRK2. Among the close orthologs, the number and position of exons in FRKs were conserved; in contrast, the size of introns varied among the paralogous FRKs in Saccharum. Genomic constraints were analyzed within the gene alleles and between S. spontaneum and Sorghum bicolor, and gene expression analysis was performed under drought stress and with exogenous applications of plant hormones. FRK1, which was under strong functional constraint selection, was conserved among the gene allelic haplotypes, and displayed dominant expression levels among the gene families in the control conditions, suggesting that FRK1 plays a major role in the phosphorylation of fructose. FRK3 and FRK5 were dramatically induced under drought stress, and FRK5 was also found to increase its expression levels in the mature stage of Saccharum. Similarly, FRK3 and FRK5 were induced in response to drought stress in Saccharum. FRK2 and FRK7 displayed lower expression levels than the other FRK family members; FRK2 was under strong genomic selection constraints whereas FRK7 was under neutral selection. FRK7 may have become functionally redundant in Saccharum through pseudogenization. FRK4 and FRK6 shared the most similar expression pattern: FRK4 was revealed to have higher expression levels in mature tissues than in premature tissues of Saccharum, and FRK6 presented a slight increase under drought stress.ConclusionsOur study presents a comprehensive genomic study of the entire FRK gene family in Saccharum, providing the foundations for approaches to characterize the molecular mechanism regulated by the SsFRK family in sugarcane.

Isolation and characterization of centromeric repetitive DNA sequences in Saccharum spontaneum

Sugarcane (Saccharum hybrids spp.) is the most important sugar crop that accounts for ~75% of the world’s sugar production. Recently, a whole-genome sequencing project was launched on the wild species S. spontaneum. To obtain information on the DNA composition of the repeat-enriched region of the centromere, we conducted a genome-wide analysis of the DNA sequences associated with CenH3 (a mutant of histone H3 located in eukaryote centromeres) using chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by sequencing (ChIP-seq) method. We demonstrate that the centromeres contain mainly SCEN-like single satellite repeat (Ss1) and several Ty3/gypsy retrotransposon-related repeats (Ss166, Ss51, and Ss68). Ss1 dominates in the centromeric regions and spans up to 500 kb. In contrast, the Ty3/gypsy retrotransposon-related repeats are either clustered spanning over a short range, or dispersed in the centromere regions. Interestingly, Ss1 exhibits a chromosome-specific enrichment in the wild species S. spontaneum and S. robustum, but not in the domesticated species S. officinarum and modern sugarcane cultivars. This finding suggests an autopolyploid genome identity of S. spontaneum with a high level of homology among its eight sub-genomes. We also conducted a genome-wide survey of the repetitive DNAs in S. spontaneum following a similarity-based sequence clustering strategy. These results provide insight into the composition of sugarcane genome as well as the genome assembly of S. spontaneum.

Review on biothermoydnamics applications: timeline, challenges, and opportunities

Research on biothermodynamics dates back to the publication of the manuscript What Is Life? by Schrödinger in the 1940s, which encouraged the use of the fundamental principles of thermodynamics for the analysis of biological processes. In the 1960s and 1970s, development of the early genetic engineering techniques, difficulties in the sugar imports to the USA due to the trade embargo imposed on Cuba, and the oil price hike after the Arab–Israeli wars created a positive environment in the USA to foster the merger of biology with engineering. The synergy established between biology and engineering in the 1960s created an irreversible stimulus for scientific and technological development in the USA and elsewhere. Advances in biothermodynamics have roots deep in the positive environment of the 1960s and 1970s. Exergy analyses were initially used to evaluate efficiency of the fuel-utilizing and energy-utilizing processes. In the early 2010s, exergy analyses found application in development of the industrial production processes of the biological origin and later directly in the cellular processes in the body. Assessing the comfort of the body in terms of entropy generation and exergy destruction, exergy efficiency of the metabolic pathways in the brain, exergy efficiency of the muscle work, and life span entropy generation and understanding and finding ways to postpone the symptoms of aging were among these studies. Application of the biothermodynamics in the medical fields will provide opportunities in the health sciences and medical technology and improve the quality of life of humans and animals. Comparing the exergetic efficiency of the competing theories on the brain energy metabolism, offering some help to prevent heart attacks in the amputees, and finding the causes of the difference in the crop yields of the plants are among the outcomes of the current biothermodynamics research. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

MENINGKATKAN DAYA SAING PABRIK GULA DI INDONESIA ERA MASYARAKAT EKONOMI ASEAN

ABSTRACTThe 1930s was the heyday of the Indonesian sugar industry that is capable of exporting to many countries and has become the country an exporter of sugar to two after Cuba, but the situation is reversed since 1967 in which Indonesia would import sugar from Brazil, India, and Thailand in order to meet the needs raw material consumption and food and beverage industry. The results showed that the cost of sugar production is very uneconomical because of inefficiency that stretches from the cultivation to processing in the factory so difficult to obtain profit margins. Target and beyond sugar self-sufficiency can not be achieved because highly regulated, there is no synergy and tends to conflicts of interests among ministries or agencies, and internal conflicts often occur between the sugar mill and the disharmony between sugarcane farmers by the sugar mill officials.In the competition of the sugar industry are more stringent, in the era of the Asean Economic Community, it means the level of efficiency of sugar factories in the country need special attention, the same thing also applies to industrial users of sugar, and sugar as a raw material components contribute to the creation of products food and beverage efficient so as to compete with similar products from other countries. Observing how the intense competition in the Asean Economic Community is based on free trade, the yield of sugar that’s a cost efficient production is very important and urgent at this time, including work to improve the welfare of farmers.