The Fiji Sugar Corporation has clarified that the two certified deductions of 67 cents from the fourth cane payment last Friday was made in accordance with the Sugar Industry Master Award.
In a press conference yesterday, Fiji Sugar Corporation chief executive officer Graham Clark said there was some confusion from growers after the deductions appeared in the fourth cane payment statements last week.
“This deduction of 67c comprised two deductions,” he said.
“The first one was the 2019 contribution of the farmers to the Sugar Research Institute of Fiji and that is governed in terms of the SRIF Act which is in turn incorporated into the Master Award and that was via an amendment made to the Master Award back in 2009.
“So we are guided by Section 21.1.4 of the Master Award which requires that on the production of a certificate from the Tribunal, the grower’s contribution to the Sugar Research of Fiji Institute need to be deducted.
“That is equivalent to 57 cents per tonne of cane.
“Secondly, there was a small deduction of 17 cents which is a sugar cost adjustment that relaxed to the reprocessing of sugar last season which is now being certified.
“So together 67 cents of the total certified deductions.”
He explained that the issue was that SRIF contribution made by growers did not appear in previous statements.
“I think the issue is the disclosure of the deduction on the grower’s statements.
“For the first time we decided to try and push for a bit more transparency and better accountability for growers so that they can track their payments.
“So that the certified deductions were included for the first time which unfortunately led to some confusion and some misunderstanding of what it is.
“I hope that this clarification enables people to have a better idea of what the deductions comprised and to reassure people more than anything that nothing is done unilaterally in our industry.”
