Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka issued a stark warning about the precarious state of Fiji’s sugar industry.
He made the comments last Friday while speaking on a motion to establish a special committee on sugar industry.
Mr Rabuka highlighted the severe pressures threatening the industry’s survival, including declining yields, ageing infrastructure, climate vulnerability, financial instability, and a growing exodus of young farmers.
“For generations, farmers, labourers, and families have toiled under the sun to make the sugar industry a pillar of our economy,” he said.
“Yet today, we face hard truths. The industry is under immense strain, and its future hangs in the balance.”
The Prime Minister noted that the number of cane growers has significantly dwindled from its peak over two decades ago.
He sharply criticised the mismanagement of the sugar industry during the 16-year period from December 2006 to December 2022, describing it as a time when growers were “taken for a ride” by self-professed experts who lacked practical knowledge of the sector.
“They couldn’t differentiate a cane top from its roots,” he said.
He also accused the previous government of politicising the industry while ignoring their own role as politicians.
He highlighted how the Sugar Industry Act was “turned upside down,” with policies that marginalised cane growers, the industry’s most critical stakeholders.
“They did not realise that without growers, there is no industry.
