JAKARTA, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia's sugar production is expected to grow to between 2.7 million tons and 2.79 million tons this year from 2.44 million tons in 2007, the industry association said Wednesday.

    The growth target is based on estimated sugarcane output of 36.3 million tons from 433,000 hectares of plantation across the country, according to the Indonesian Sugar Experts Association (Ikagi).

    "We hope that productivity in sugarcane plantations can reach 6.44 tons per hectare in 2008," Ikagi Deputy Secretary General Adig Suwandi was quoted by the national Antara news agency as saying.

    "If domestic need for sugar reaches 2.6 million tons, Indonesia will be self-sufficient in sugar," Suwandi said in the East Java capital of Surabaya.

    Last year, all 57 sugar factories in the country produced 2.44 million tons of sugar from 33.27 million tons of sugarcane harvested from 426,600 hectares of plantations.

    Of the total, about 1.6 million tons were produced by 46 mills in Java and 860,000 tons by 11 mills outside Java.