OPPOSITION MP Viam Pillay has called for the extension of the Rarawai Sugar Mill operations after it was revealed more than 84,000 tonnes of cane still have to be harvested across the Western Division.
He made the plea after spending a few days hearing concerns from farmers in the Rarawai mill area who lamented they were at ‘a breaking point’.
“This isn’t just a supply issue,” he said in a statement.
“It is the lifeblood of thousands of families who are watching their hard work rot in the fields because the system is failing to keep up.
“I am making a personal and humble appeal to the Minister for Agriculture and Sugar Industry Tomasi Tunabuna.
“I know the minister is a man of the people who understands the struggles of our rural communities.
“Our farmers have battled terrible weather and a shortage of labour, yet they have pushed their gangs to the limit, often at a massive extra cost to themselves. They have done everything asked of them.”
He said farmers were finally working under better weather conditions, but they were running out of time.
“We cannot allow a rigid calendar or a ‘closing date’ to dictate the survival of our farmers. If the cane is there and the farmers are ready, the mill must stay open.”
He said the Fiji Sugar Corporation must extend the crushing at Rarawai.
“We have to be flexible.
“We cannot punish the farmer for the weather or for the fact that manual gangs can only move so fast.
“Every tonne of that 84,000 tonnes needs to be crushed.
“Second, if any cane is still left when the gates finally shut, the government must compensate these farmers.
“They have invested their savings, their fertiliser, and their sweat into this crop. If the industry cannot process what they grew, the farmer should not have to carry that loss alone.
“It is only fair.”
Questions sent to FSC yesterday on the request to extend the mill closure remained unanswered.
Mr Tunabuna will officially take on the Sugar Industry portfolio on January 19.
Trucks queue, time runs out for farmers
WITH less than seven days before the Rarawai Sugar Mill closes on January 12, hundreds of farmers are racing against time to harvest their cane.
But harvest has been delayed by rainy conditions, a lack of manpower and mounting expenses.
Yesterday, cane lorry drivers from as far as Sigatoka joined the queue of trucks hoping to make the 50 truck per entry quota limit implemented by the Fiji Sugar Corporation.
This, according to Koronobu sector farmer Saizad Ali, prevented a quick turnaround time for the drivers.
“The longer we wait here the less cane we can deliver to the mill,” said Mr Ali.
“We have to wait until there is 50 trucks in the line before we can enter the gate.
“If we arrived at 7am, we still have to wait until we get that number.”
Nukuloa sector farmer Saiyad Hussein said a farmer in his sector lost about 200 tonnes of cane on Sunday after it caught fire.
“They need to deliver it quickly after it got burnt but he does not have enough people to cut cane,” he said.
“Already we are trying to harvest our cane but when something like this happens, there is nothing left to do but to just leave it.”
He said most farmers in his sector were heavily dependent on manual labourers.
“Most of our labourers went to their homes for Christmas and New Years.
“Some of us are still waiting for them to come back to the farm.”
He added farmers have tried their best to harvest their own cane, but muddy and rainy conditions have impacted access of cane trucks and tractors.
85,500 tonnes of sugarcane left in fields, says Kumar
A TOTAL of 85,500 tonnes of stand over cane will not be harvested.
Rarawai sector cane farmer and Fiji Cane Lorries Association president Atish Kumar said this was a sad reality that growers were faced with as the 2025 crushing season draws to an end.
He said the unharvested cane was the result of a number of new and ongoing issues.
“First, Rarawai closed down for a few weeks affecting farmers from Rakiraki to Tavua,” he said.
“We had to take our cane all the way to Lautoka and during that time we hardly got any good news from FSC.
“When we asked them to give us a quota of how much we can harvest from our farms we did not get an answer. All they told us was to bring five loads.
“Then we went into November and the weather changed.”
He said the rainy conditions made things worse for farmers.
“We had trucks getting stuck and we need to tow them out either with our own tractor or hire a contractor.
“When I hired a company to come and tow a lorry out of the field they asked me to pay $500 upfront.
“Other drivers park the lorry away from the cane field if it is too muddy and we have to load a tractor with the sugar cane and then take it to the truck.
“This will take us one full day to load one lorry.”
He said absent cane cutters have further aggravated their frustrations.
“We can’t stop anyone wanting to go and celebrate Christmas and New Years with their family.
“So, we let our labourers go but that means for several weeks, we either can’t harvest our cane at all, or we only have two or three people to cut the cane.
“We have only one week left, and most farmers are still waiting for their labourers.”
He said the standover cane of more than 85,500 tonnes was a culmination of problems that have left growers counting their losses and wary of the next harvesting season.
“I’m not sure if we can meet the next season’s target. All I know is that a lot of farmers will get very little for the 2025 season.”
Questions sent to the Fiji Sugar Corporation remain unanswered.
Extending mill closing time won’t help – Singh
FORMER Fiji Sugar Corporation Board member Arvind Singh believes there is not much that could be done for a total of 85,000 tonnes of cane that would go unharvested in the 2025 crushing season.
“Extending the mill closing time will not do anything to help the farmer,” said Mr Singh.
“We are fighting against the weather which is out of our control, and we have labourers who we can’t force to come back to the farms.
“And we are expected to harvest all of this cane in less than seven days. How are we going to do that?”
He said FSC needs to do a lot of internal changes before the next crushing season.
“What we as growers need is a change in how things are being done and that starts with the miller.”
He said growers have no choice but to count their losses.
“I lost close to 170 tonnes of cane. They won’t be harvested.
“My farm is just one of many that will have left over cane.”
Mr Singh added he hoped the new Minister for Sugar Industry Tomasi Tunabuna would have more open dialogue with growers.
“I am very hopeful that with a new minister coming on board we will finally be heard.
Farmer calls for compensation
BA farmer Jai Sharma is calling on Government to compensate growers who have made losses in the 2025 crushing season.
He was among growers who were working over the festive season trying to harvest their cane.
“During the recent rainy weather, the cane truck could not enter the field,” he said.
“So we loaded the cane on our tractor and took it to the roadside.
“It took us the whole day.”
He said green cane harvested after a series of rainy weather produced little to no sugar.
“The quantity of sugar is also affected.
“We are told not to burn cane because it affects the quantity of sugar but the green cane is also affected when there is too much rain.
“We are in the rainy season, and most growers know there will be not a lot of sugar being produced.”
A cane farmer for most of his life, Mr Sharma said he was also worried about the next crushing season.
“When you have a 10-wheeler cane truck coming into the field while you’re also preparing for the next season, there will be damage to the new crop.
“And then we have the standover cane.
“We should be allowed to also harvest this leftover cane for the next season.
