Plan to save sugar industry

SIX thousand hectares of land will open up to new cane this season, as part of a must-do plan to salvage the sugar industry.

The new cane is expected to push harvests to 2.6 million tonnes in the 2011 season.

With a grant in place to help farmers replant cane over the next few weeks, the expectation is that this year's crush will be much better than the past three seasons.

Fiji Sugar Corporation chairman Gautam Ramswarup confirmed this, adding that cane production in recent years had declined to levels that threatened the FSC's existence.

Production over the past three years had sat at around 2.35 millions tonnes of cane, he said.

"The crop decline has seriously affected growers' income whereby affecting their daily living.

"You, the growers, are the most important part of the Fiji sugar industry," he told 50 farmers at the launch of the 2010 cane replanting program in Lovu, Lautoka.

"The drop in production has badly affected the Fiji Sugar Corporation's profitability, threatening its survival."

Mr Ramswarup told farmers that their survival was also the survival of the Corporation and the nation.

He said the launch of the cane replanting program marked the beginning of a project which was expected to bring about improved productivity.

"It will not only benefit the canegrowers but also the Corporation," the chairman said.

"It is part of the sugar reform measures to address the sustainable survival and viability of the industry."

Mr Ramswarup said FSC had made substantial investments in its mills over the past three years to improve reliability and efficiency.

"Returns on this investment in the mills can only be realised if there is adequate supply of cane," he said.

The major replanting program is part of a State grant and designed for an overall plan to bring the cane crop to four million tonnes by 2014.

Through the program, growers are provided with funds through work orders to carry out activities involved in the establishment of new cane crop.

The scheme is based on a self-help concept, Mr Ramswarup said, with money provided for land preparation activity.

"The cost of other activities will have to be borne by the growers," he said.

For growers who are unable to meet the balance of the cost, there are arrangements in place to borrow from the Sugar Cane Growers Fund through a soft loan, he says.

Mr Ramswarup said the scheme was open to any cane grower who had the interest and capacity to plant and cultivate sugar cane.

source: fijitimes