Farmers will lose $33m under 2003 Harvest Quota

Posted 7 May 2003,1600]

Farmers stand to lose a massive $33 million this year if the FSC refuses to accept this season’s full crop, NFU general secretary Mahendra Chaudhry said.

Farmers are quite agitated at FSC’s decision to purchase only 68% of the 3.4 million tonne crop for this season. This means that FSC will only take 2.8 million tonnes of the crop, leaving farmers facing a severe loss on the remaining 600,000 tonnes.

“This 600,000 tonnes of rejected cane mean a monetary loss to farmers of $33 million. There is no way NFU can allow them to suffer such a substantial loss ” Mr. Chaudhry said.

As far as the National Farmers Union is concerned, the reduced harvest quota for the 2003 crushing season was obtained based on substantially incorrect figures. It wants the Fiji Sugar Corporation to revise the quota.

The Union has also written to Sugar Commission chairman Gerald Barrack seeking an urgent meeting with the Sugar Tribunal and the FSC to resolve this critical dispute.

The National Harvest Quota is announced annually by the Sugar Industry Tribunal following advice given to it by the FSC.

The NFU’s stand is that when advising the Tribunal, FSC had based its 2003 crop forecast on a projected 2002 season crop of 2.9 million tonnes.

This has been confirmed by the Tribunal’s office which has written to NFU to say that the National Harvest Quota was based on a forecast crop of 2.8 million tonnes for 2003. It says it is now up to the FSC to re-apply to the Tribunal to purchase additional cane.

The actual crop estimate for 2003 is 3.4 million tonnes. The FSC has a responsibility to revise the harvest quota based on the correct figures.

“I am disgusted that the Sugar Cane Growers Council has meekly accepted FSC’s decision to substantially reduce the harvest quota when it should be more active in protecting growers’ interests,” Mr. Chaudhry said.

In the past 30 years, ever since its inception, the corporation has purchased 100% of the cane crop. It cannot now, suddenly, change this practice and tell the farmers, two months before commencement of harvest, that it will not purchase the total crop but only 68%.

Farmers should have been informed individually of the reduced harvest quota in time so that they could have taken the necessary steps to reduce their crop size.

“No farmer was so advised and most of them continued to maintain their production based on the understanding that FSC will accept 100% of the crop. NFU cannot allow money spent on cultivating the crop to go to waste.

“It is in the best interest of FSC and the industry to negotiate this issue with us,” Mr. Chaudhry said.