Indonesia plans to open new sugarcane plantations to supply ethanol for its planned E20 gasoline mandate, which would raise the ethanol share of transport gasoline from 5% to 20% as the government seeks to reduce reliance on increasingly expensive imported petroleum products. Food Minister Zulkifli Hasan said on 6 October, in remarks reported by state news agency Antara, that current domestic sugarcane supply is insufficient and that "we have to open new plantations."
The Supply Gap
The Energy Ministry estimates E20 would need about 4 million kilolitres of ethanol a year, many times what Indonesia produces today. For scale, ChemAnalyst reported ahead of the E5 mandate starting in July 2026 that E5 alone needs 1 to 1.2 million kilolitres a year, against output of about 60,000 kilolitres from three fuel-grade ethanol plants. A senior economic ministry official said in August that Indonesia expects to implement E20 by 2029.
The Land Plan
Agriculture Minister Andi Amran Sulaiman said last month that about 1 million hectares of sugarcane are needed. According to Antara reporting carried by bne IntelliNews, President Prabowo Subianto separately instructed Amran at a restricted cabinet meeting on 16 September to prepare 2 million hectares of sugarcane plantations within two years. Hasan said E20 can also draw on cassava and other crops, and officials have pointed to molasses from new food estate developments, including in Papua, as a further source.
Higher Blends, Domestic Sourcing
Energy Minister Bahlil Lahadalia said on 21 September that Indonesia aims to progress toward E50 without relying on imported bioethanol, describing E20 as an intermediate step and saying the country cannot roll out higher blends while procuring ethanol from abroad. In June he said the government would act as the primary off-taker for ethanol produced by farmers and upstream businesses. Separately, Pertamina New and Renewable Energy and Toyota Tsusho have been planning a bioethanol plant, with construction targeted for the second half of 2026 and production in 2028.
Land-Use Questions
Amran said the government would convert already degraded land before moving into forested areas, but did not rule out forest conversion. On the same day as Hasan's remarks, climate envoy Hashim Djojohadikusumo said Indonesia will halt its programme to clear millions of hectares of land for rice, having reached rice self-sufficiency. The NGO Mighty Earth says more than 50,000 hectares of rainforest, savannah, peat swamp and wetlands have been cleared for sugarcane and rice since 2024. Indonesia aims to become a net carbon sink by 2030, and AFP notes that observers say continued forest loss for agriculture and logging, along with wildfires, could put that goal at risk.
How Ethanol Fits Alongside Biodiesel
Indonesia has long blended palm oil into diesel and is working to increase that concentration, so ethanol would become a second domestic biofuel pillar for road transport alongside palm-based biodiesel, with sugarcane and cassava as feedstocks in place of palm oil.
What Remains Unconfirmed
The reporting reviewed gives no legal start date for E20, no detail on land allocation, financing or ethanol pricing, and no timeline for E50.
Source: Malay Mail, 7 October 2026.
