NFU statement on the sugar industry

[posted 18 Feb 2010, 1400]

In principle the NFU supports any genuine efforts to return the sugar industry to viability, but it cannot support policies that completely marginalise cane growers from an industry in which they have a majority (70%) stake.

This clarification is issued in response to FBCL reports of a statement by NFU President Sanjeet Maharaj declaring the Union’s support for the policies of the interim government in moving the sugar industry forward, despite differences in the past.

Since March last year, the regime has dissolved the Sugar Commission of Fiji, the Fiji Sugar Marketing Ltd and the Sugar Cane Growers Council – three key institutions established as part of reforms carried out under the 1984 Sugar Industry Act.

These institutions gave growers a significant voice in the sugar industry after almost a century of exploitation. They also ensured greater accountability and transparency on the part of the miller (FSC), and a consultative approach to sugar matters.

Acting arbitrarily, without consultation with the growers, the interim government dismantled these important institutions last year. It got rid of all elected growers’ representatives in the Sugar Cane Growers Council, a body that was fully funded by the growers themselves.

In another gross imposition, the Council continues to charge the growers a levy for its operations even though it is no longer representative. Furthermore, the administration intends to replace the elected growers’ representatives with its own nominees.

And now it is targeting growers’ unions by striking at their financial base. From January this year, it has ordered FSC to stop deducting union dues at source.

None of these decisions can be legally challenged because the Courts no longer have the jurisdiction to deal with cases involving government decrees and policies.

Growers have thus been left defenceless and completely at the mercy of the State and a failed Fiji Sugar Corporation.

None of these moves are likely to promote goodwill and cooperation within the industry. Indeed, all the mistrust and suspicions that governed grower/miller relationships prior to 1984 and that created so much turbulence in the industry, have surfaced once again – all to the detriment of the sugar industry.

The NFU cannot support policies which are anti-grower to begin with, and will definitely undermine the long term interests of the industry.

Nor can NFU display any confidence in the policies of an  administration that has in 18 months brought the sugar industry to its knees with losses estimated at a massive $100 million for the 2009 season alone. Of this, $70m will be suffered by growers through no fault of theirs.

2009 was the worst season in the industry’s history with chronic milling problems resulting in frequent breakdowns and inability to crush cane efficiently. FSC managed to produce only 168,000 tonnes of sugar from 2.25 million tonnes of cane supplied to the mills… it had enough cane to produce 240,000 tonnes of sugar.

Some 40% of cane crushed was reduced to molasses and thousands of litres of cane juice were simply dumped into the rivers and creeks at Rarawai, Labasa and Lautoka. The TCTS (the cane to sugar conversion ratio) stood at an unacceptable 13.4 for the season (the highest on record). FSC refused to release weekly milling statistics to the Growers Council, particularly figures on sugar production.

If this was not bad enough, growers themselves were bullied, threatened, and in several cases, physically abused and assaulted by the army. NFU officers were harassed and intimidated and, on two occasions, detained overnight at the Police Station for no reason at all.

Complaints on these incidents of army excesses and abuse of power were officially made to the Ministry for Home Affairs which directed Army headquarters to investigate the complaints.

As for the interim government’s intention to revive the sugar industry, there has been a lot of rhetoric but little to show for it on the ground.