Ilami Nadruku, 49, of Yavuna Village in Nadi has been a labourer for more than 30 years.

His family has been loyal farmhands at Tovatova, on a farm owned and run by Mohammed Shair Shohab, 26.

Mr Shohab took over the farm from his father two years ago.

As Mr Nadruku prepares to round up a gang of labourers to work on the four-acre farm for the next crushing season, he conceded that good, hardworking labourers were hard to find.

“It’s a tough job,” he said.

“We have to spend hours under the heat cutting cane and loading them on the truck. It’s a lot of work.”

He said a labourer’s demand of $20 to $25 per tonne was not unreasonable —but rather a reflection of the high cost of living.

“We need to survive too. Some of us bring our whole families with us. Our wives and our children. We have to send our children to school.

“Sending them to school is important because we don’t want them to do what we are doing.

“There are some labourers who only take the money and they don’t do the work. It makes the rest of us look bad.”

He said his employers have been as loyal as he has been over the past 30 years.

“I’ve been fortunate to work with people like Mr Shohab and his son and family. They’re like our family too.

“I only bring people that I can trust to this farm.”

Mr Nadruku is the head of the Yavuna labourers gang hired by Mr Shohab annually to harvest an average of 800 tonnes each crushing season.

He says he is aware of the cost associated with sugarcane farming and suggested an increase in the cane price to lighten the farmers’ financial burden.