SUGAR industry stakeholders and the Government must stop blaming canegrowers and take ownership of problems plaguing the sector, says the Fiji Cane Growers Association.

General secretary Bala Dass said recent comments made by Sugar Ministry Permanent Secretary Viliame Gucake urging farmers to have patience and to follow instructions from the Fiji Sugar Corporation when harvesting and transporting cane, were side-stepping the real issue.

“The mills are not doing well, it’s as simple as that,” he said.

“The Prime Minister and Minister for Sugar Voreqe Bainimarama revealed in Parliament that a total of 868 hours of stoppages due to mechanical issues was logged from June to August.

“This is a fact. So instead of asking growers to be patient, stakeholders should be holding the FSC responsible for the huge amount of breakdowns.”

Mr Dass said growers were incurring huge costs each time a mill broke down. He added that labourers were resorting to burning cane in an attempt to ensure they had consistent work.

“They know that once the cane is burnt, the cane has to be harvested and sent to the mill.

“You can’t blame them because they need work.”

FSC executive chairman Abdul Khan has acknowledged that mills were plagued with ageing machinery.

However, he also said milling efficiency had improved since 2010 with tonnes cane to tonnes sugar or TCTS reduced from more than 13:1 to just over 8.