Sugar Minister Charan Jeath Singh announced in Parliament this week that the Government has allocated $15 million in working capital support to the Fiji Sugar Corporation (FSC) to help meet its loan obligations.
“This allocation ensures that FSC can meet its payment obligations for the EXIM Bank loan,” he said. “Let me reiterate that the project undertaken with this loan was one of the many failures under the previous regimes. We are now compelled to bail FSC out through this provision, a necessary measure to rectify the past missteps and stabilize the sector.”
The Government has also allocated $4 million for the sugar price stabilization fund, $4 million towards cane planting, $1 million for farm incentives, $4 million for cane access roads, and $320,000 for Fiji Corrections Service inmates to harvest cane.
“Addressing labour shortages which have affected many of our sectors, we aim to mechanize the industry through the Sugarcane Farm Mechanization Programme with a $500,000 budgetary allocation,” he said. “Furthermore, we will increase support to our farmers who harvest their cane using manual labour by providing a subsidy of $3 per tonne, which was previously $1 per tonne.
To ensure the cost of inputs is manageable, the Ministry will continue with the Fertilizer Subsidy Programme of $20 million, where farmers will pay only $20 per bag of fertilizer. We will also subsidize weedicide costs of $1 million and cartage costs of $4.9 million for the Penang farmers.
To address land lease issues, the Government has set aside $1 million to assist growers whose leases are expiring or who wish to purchase land for cane farming by providing a subsidy of 30 percent or $7,500, whichever is lower. To mitigate the impacts of climate change, the Ministry will continue with the Drainage for Sugarcane Farms programme, allocating $5.5 million to reduce the effects of flooding during the offseason.