Deterioration of Fiji sugar industry continues

Fiji's Sugar Corporation will sack 1,000 workers over the next 18 months as part of a major cost cutting exercise.

It will affect the nations poorest communities pushing them deeper into poverty.

The sugar industry accounts for around 40 per cent of the value of agricultural production, and 22 per cent of the country's GDP. The Sugar Corporation has been making sustained losses over the past 15 years for a number of reasons including mismanagement.

Pada Lal is an expert on Fiji's sugar industry and has been working out of Canberra since her deportation from Fiji last year. She explains the reasons for the long term devaluation of the industry.