National Farmers Union general secretary Mahendra Chaudhary’s constant disparagement of the Fiji Sugar Corporation is becoming tortuously insufferable, says FSC board chairman Nitya Reddy.
He said Mr Chaudhry’s call for the dismissal of the Sugar Minister and the FSC chairman and CEO had become a monotonous obsession of Mr Chaudhry.
“Instead of engaging constructively to help us find solutions, he continues in his posture of unmalleable confrontation and exaggerated negativity,” Mr Reddy said.
“It is also time to call him out to show what real contribution he has made to the industry and in particular, to the welfare of the farmers.”
Earlier Mr Chaudhry claimed the Lautoka mill was operating well below capacity and that milling inefficiencies were causing huge losses for the farmers and the industry.
“In the last six weeks it crushed only 93,300 tonnes of cane making 6087 tonnes of sugar,” he said.
“For the week-ended July 14, it crushed 25,900 tonnes against a target of 36,600 tonnes — 10,700 tonnes short of the projected crush.
“The optimistic statements about mill performance by the Minister of Sugar, Charan Jeath Singh, are clearly a bluff, intended to take credit for himself by misinforming people.”
However, Mr Reddy said as the leader of the National Farmers Union, former prime minister and sugar minister spanning over 40 years, “what really has he achieved for them?”
“We are trying to repair this industry which has been badly damaged by decades of neglect and mismanagement.
“In its demise, he has been no more than an innocent spectator.”
