Supply critical for sugar industry: FSC
Friday August 31, 2007

The Fiji Sugar Corporation says a consistent supply of quality sugar cane will continue to be critical for the survival of the sugar industry once the multi-million dollar mill upgrade project is finished.

"Upon upgrading the mills, a total of 4.2m tonnes of cane will be required for a 25 week crushing season compared to the current production levels of around 3.0 million tonnes," the FSC says.

For now, the FSC says good progress has been made during the year on the mill upgrade project.

According to the FSC, a significant portion of plant and equipment for the project was acquired during the year and it was anticipated that the remaining plant and equipment would be acquired before year end when the construction work is expected to commence.

The corporation has invested $18.1m in the mills during the year compared to $11.1m in the previous year.

The mill upgrade is aimed at upgrading Fiji's sugar mills to world's best practice by improving milling efficiencies, introducing energy conservation measures and producing better quality, very high Pol (VHP) sugar.

FSC says the project will be implemented over the next two years at an estimated cost of $86m and is being financed through a line of credit extended by the Indian Government.



Meanwhile, the interim Minister for Finance National Planning and Sugar Industry, Mahendra Chaudhry yesterday said there are ongoing negotiations and discussions with the Ministry of Fijian Affairs and Native Land Trust Board (NLTB) to return the land that were initially taken away and engage those lands to sugarcane cultivation again.

"This is so that we can satisfactorily achieve our target of increasing the cane crop of the present 3 million tonnes to 4 million tonnes by 2009 or 2010."

Chaudhry says that for the expiring leases the administration was discussing with NLTB and Fijian Affairs Ministry to return those land, which, are not needed by the Fijian landowners to the sugar cultivation.

He said his main aim is to increase cane production and recuperate the sugar exports.

"We must understand that in the case of the sugar industry that we are trying to get back where we were once in terms of sugar exports.

"In 2000 for example we exported over 400,000 tonnes of sugar, down to 300,000 tonnes of sugar in the last five to six years," he said.

According to him, funds from the European Union (EU) are now accessible, and ethanol along with other core generation projects is also receiving attention.

He said if everything goes smoothly than the sugar industry would once again be on the top of Fiji's economic front as previously experienced.