IG and sugar industry bailed SPF: FLP

The Fiji Labour Party says the Interim Government and the sugar industry had to step in and bail out the South Pacific Fertilizer Ltd last year, to maintain the price of fertilizer at $19.50 a bag for cane farmers.

Acting Gen. Secretary Lekh Ram Vayeshnoi says, otherwise farmers would have been forced to pay more than $50 a bag of fertilizer.

He says the whole deal was struck in favor of cane farmers so tat they could continue to access fertilizer at affordable costs.

Vayeshnoi says the decision to bail out the fertilizer company was taken in full consultation with all stakeholders in the sugar industry.

He is responding to the $6.65m bail out for South Pacific Fertilizer Limited that was borrowed from the Sugar Cane Growers Fund, reportedly from the authorization of the then Sugar Minister Mahendra Chaudhry.

FBCL News