Minister for Finance, Biman Prasad, has rubbished claims made by the National Farmers Union (NFU) about an increase in cane prices to $110 per tonne.

The union called on Mr Prasad yesterday, to fulfil his alleged election promise to sugar cane farmers in the upcoming national budget.

“The Fiji Labour Party leader and NFU general secretary, Mahendra Chaudhry, continues with his lies,” Mr Prasad said.

“The FLP leader should provide irrefutable evidence of me as NFP leader making such a promise. Otherwise, he should shut up and stop being a petty-minded agitator who obviously cannot digest the inevitable fact that he will soon be in political oblivion.”

Mr Chaudhry said cane farmers were concerned about the future of the industry considering the precarious financial position of the Fiji Sugar Corporation.

“The $13.8m which is now to be reimbursed to cane growers is the money owed to them for their 2019/2020/2021 seasons’ crop, which the FijiFirst Government had offset against industry costs,” Mr Chaudhry said.

“NFU had vigorously opposed it at the time, and we thank Sugar Minister Charan Jeath Singh for agreeing to reimburse it to the farmers as additional payment for their 2022 crop.”

Story by: josefa.babitu@fijisun.com.fj