Ethanol plant establishment vital to alternate fuel option

Fiji’s sugar industry needs to expand its operation and establish an ethanol plant as an alternative fuel option to counter fuel crisis situations.

This was the message from Minister for Public Enterprises, Multi-Ethnic Affairs, Heritage, Arts and Culture, Charan Jeath Singh, when asked about the ethanol plant setup plans during his term as then-Minister for Sugar.

Mr Singh said plans of establishing an ethanol plant in Rakiraki was to provide alternative fuel options and possible jet fuel for our national carrier, Fiji Airways.

Mr Singh believes the time to plan for the future of the fuel industry must start now.

He said the survival of the sugar industry depended on the Fiji Sugar Corporation (FSC) and Ministry of Sugar to diversify into ethanol production.

“Ethanol plant setup is the only option if we want the sugarcane industry to survive in the long-term and to remove dependence of Government’s continuous assistance to FSC to make it self-sufficient,” he explained.

However, tough decisions would need to be made by Government to inject nearly FJ$200 million to setup the ethanol plant.

“It is not going to a small investment; it will be a huge investment requiring close to $200 million which we will have to seek assistance from the World Bank or International Monetary Fund (IMF)” he said.

“This assistance should be undertaken with a long-term option either with a soft loan or a grant, that’s the part Government would have to facilitate”.

Mr Singh said the onus would be on the farmers to deliver high tonnage of sugarcane to the three mills.

At present, FSC received around 1.5 million tonnes of sugarcane for crushing.

“During my time as Minister for Sugar, the crushing tonnage received was 1.3 million, now it is near 1.5 million, this year, FSC is looking at 1.7M, so annually this needs to improve to reach 3.5 million tonnes”.

Mr Singh said annually 3.5 million tonnes of cane are required for processing at the ethanol plant to ensure effective usage.

He said if an average growth of 200,000 tonnes was achieved annually, then the target of 3.5 million tonnes will be achieved in a decade.

“If we want to setup an ethanol plant, we need to have 3.5 million tonnes of sugarcane, I know the Government is very keen in this investment, but farmers have to do their part,” he mentioned.

Fuel rebate in place

Minister for Sugar, Agriculture and Waterways, Tomasi Tunabuna, reiterated the industry has to steer ahead and overcome the fuel crisis.

When approached, Mr Tunabuna, confirmed there was a fuel rebate in place for sugarcane transport providers (tractor, cane truck operators) to access via fuelling at the FSC fuel bowser.

He added similar assistance was being handed by the Sugarcane Growers Fund (SCGF) to farmers to provide some cushion against this high fuel crisis.