Minister Promotes Foreign Labour to Harvest Sugarcane

Sugarcane farmers in Vanua Levu, who are financially stable and want to improve the rate of their manual harvest, can access Bangladeshi labourers.

This is the gist of the message by Minister for Sugar and Multi-Ethnic Affairs, Charan Jeath Singh, to farmers in the division after he confirmed some of these labourers would be working on his farm.

Mr Singh said that he brought the labourers for his farm, but once the work was over, other farmers may engage them.

“It will be a wage-like system where the farmer must pay them weekly wages to the required wage decided between the farmer and worker,” he said.

Mr Singh said the shortage of manual labour was evident in many sugarcane farming areas of the country, and importing workers was an alternative solution.

To secure these labourers’ services, farmers were urged to contact Mr Singh’s representative handling this work, Jitendra Kumar.

“It can be on a weekly salary basis where the farmer can pay the Bangladeshi labourer for their work.”

Coqeloa sugarcane farmer Mohammed Yunus, supported the idea to boost manual harvesting in Vanua Levu.

On average, a farmer in Fiji harvests 47 tonnes of cane per hectare. This is less compared to the global data on yield harvest.

Mr Singh said the sugar refinery in Labasa would be a game changer with white sugar production, meaning export prices would increase.

He said the potential was there for the industry to thrive, and the Government continues to assist farmers with various initiatives.

Mr Singh said many initiatives were undertaken by the ministry to enhance the machinery resource.

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