NFU rejects new Council of Sugar Cane Growers

[posted 8 April 2010, 1530]

The National Farmers Union has written to the Sugar Ministry rejecting the newly established Council of Sugar Cane Growers (CSCG) as a representative organisation of the cane farmers.

A Ministry of Information (Minfo) release issued after a Cabinet meeting last Tuesday stated that CSCG would be a successor organisation to the Sugar Cane Growers Council (SCGC) which was unlawfully disbanded by the regime last year, along with the Sugar Commission of Fiji and the Fiji Sugar Marketing Ltd.

The NFU letter pointed out that the newly established Council cannot be regarded as a genuinely representative organisation of the cane farmers as appointments to it would be made by the authorities and not the growers themselves.

The CSCG is to have 11 members, 8 of whom will be growers selected by the Sugar Ministry from applications received in response to its advertisement. The other three will be civil servants one of whom will be the chairperson.

According to the Minfo release, the activities of the new body will be funded by a levy to be paid by cane growers at the rate of 24 cents per tonne of cane.

NFU has pointed out that the operating expenses of the CSCG should rightly be paid by the State but, more appropriately its establishment should not be proceeded with and the industry institutions referred to above be reinstated as provided for in the Sugar Industry Act.

Provided below is the full text of the NFU letter to the Permanent Secretary for Sugar:

8 April 2010

The Permanent Secretary for Sugar
Ministry for Sugar
4th Floor Government Building
Suva

Dear Sir

Council of Sugar Cane Growers (CSCG)

We refer to a Ministry of Information (Minfo) release notifying that Cabinet has approved the establishment of a Council of Sugar Cane Growers to administer the affairs of sugar cane growers and be the “successor body” to the purportedly dissolved Sugar Cane Growers Council.

We note from the Minfo release that it is the intention of the Ministry to make consequential amendments to the Master Award “in order to reflect the establishment of the CSCG…”

We also note from the release that CSCG is to be funded by a general levy on cane growers at the rate of 24 cents per tonne of cane.

We have already drawn your attention in our previous letters to the fact that the purported and forced dissolutions of the elected Sugar Cane Growers Council, the Sugar Commission of Fiji and the Fiji Sugar Marketing Ltd are all unlawful as these were done in contravention of the relevant provisions of the Sugar Industry Act 1984.

The newly established CSCG, we note from the release, is to comprise eight growers “representatives” to be selected by the authorities from the applications received in response to its advertisement, and three official representatives one of whom is to be the chairperson.

It is thus clear that CSCG cannot be regarded a genuinely representative body of the cane growers as appointments to it would be decided by the authorities and not the growers themselves. In the event, it would be iniquitous and injudicious to impose its operational expenses on the growers. This expense should rightly be a charge on the consolidated fund.

I should remind you that one of the first acts of the military government when it took office in December 2006 was to dismiss the eight government nominees on the Sugar Cane Growers Council as an affront to the democratic process. The interim government is now reversing this earlier decision.

Furthermore, the High Court in Lautoka had ruled in a judgment delivered on 17 July 2003 in the case of Silimaibau & Anor v Minister for Sugar Industry… (HBC 155.01) that the purported nomination by the Sugar Minister of 8 members to the Sugar Cane Growers Council was “null and void and of no legal effect”.

The judgment found that the nomination of unelected members to the Council reduced the rights of growers and changed the democratic provisions by altering the results of the growers council elections.

The future of the Sugar Industry

The NFU is apprehensive about the sugar industry’s future judging from its abysmal performance in the past three years (2007-2009), more particularly the 2009 season. Whether the industry survives well into the future depends very much on the growers being satisfied with the financial returns as well as the administrative and technical arrangements applicable to the cultivation, harvesting, transportation and milling of their cane.

This can only be ensured provided the growers are left free to decide on their own affairs and are not subjected to State patronage as is the case today. It can be said without doubt that the industry is headed for more problems under the prevailing conditions.

We urge you to take note of the above and reinstate the SCGC and other industry organisations as provided under the Sugar Industry Act.

I shall be grateful for your response to the representations herein as soon as possible.

Yours faithfully

Mahendra P. Chaudhry
General Secretary