People who know about the sugar industry, in particular how cane payments are made should not politicise the issue, says attorney-general Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum.
He was responding to National Federation Party leader Prof Biman Prasad who said there are now “grave doubts” that Government would pay the guaranteed price of cane — $85 per tonne for the 2020 season.
Prof Prasad claimed seven months ago, growers had bitterly discovered that Government’s promise was as hollow as many other promises it had made since 2014.
In response, Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said they had paid out the $85 per tonne for cane payments.
“Anybody that knows about the sugar industry, in particular cane payments system, should not politicise it,” he said.
“The farmers have various master awards recognised deductions that are made from those cane payments.
“We have things like the lorry transport costs, customer charges, etc. All these charges are deducted from the cane payments.
“$85 is the gross cane payment that all farmers receive. He said there had been talks on the gross cane payments on social media.
“It is different now because in 2018, FSC was paying all those costs, even though they did not have to.
“People are going around spreading misinformation, for anyone who wants to do the story on this should look at the facts.”
(This article was first published in The Fiji Times edition of Saturday, October 31, 2020)
