Govt to Increase Cane Tonnage Price

Good news for sugarcane farmers around the country!

Government has proposed to increase the tonnage price of sugarcane to $95 this season.

Minister for Sugar, Charan Jeath Singh, made the revelation during a recent engagement with farmers in Macuata.

Further to this, Mr Singh has hinted plans to increase the price further to $100 per ton next year.

The guaranteed minimum price of $85 per ton of sugarcane was topped up by $6.28 to take the final price to $91.28 for production that came last season.

“So when the price per tonnage supplied is higher, we need farmers to increase their yield of cane production,” he encouraged farmers.

“The more the tonnage supplied, the more the income a farmer will gain for their effort.”

When highlighted on the high cost associated with sugarcane farming, Mr Singh, said they understood this struggle.

Mr Singh said the international demand for sugar was stable and this presented the perfect opportunity for exporting countries like Fiji to increase production.

Comparison

He compared the production scale of other overseas sugar producing countries with Fiji and it showed the local production rate of 47 tons per hectare was not close to their production scale.

Other exporting overseas countries harvested above 100 tons per hectare.

Mr Singh said to aid farmers to increase production, under one of ministry’s new schemes the Fiji Sugar Corporation (FSC) would assist by providing planters.

“FSC have contractors responsible for land preparation and cane plantation and we have ordered for 28 planters to be brought in.”

The benefit of this planter it is less labour intensive and plants two rows adjacent to each other in one task. Incorporating mechanisation is the new norm of sugarcane farming nowadays.

These planters would be distributed to cooperatives and FSC contractors that operate in cane producing areas. However, a cost would be deducted by FSC for using this planting service, Mr Singh confirmed.

Farmers support increase

Farmer, Mohammed Yunus of Labasa, supported any increases to sugar price.

Mr Yunus believed mechanisation remained vital to ensuring production was not affected by labour shortage or other factors.

Wailevu sector farmer, Mohammed Idris, said having a consistent price per tonnage would ensure interest in retained among farmers to continue farming.

During an earlier engagement in grower’s consultation event, Mr Idris, said Government should incentivise new and young farmers in joining the industry.

“Most of the farming is done by the older generation and there is a lack of young generation of farmers, so Government must bridge this gap,” Mr Idris added.

Feedback: sampras.anand@fijisun.com.fj