The Government has called for Fiji Labour Party leader and National Farmers Union (NFU) general secretary Mahendra Chaudhry to stop hoodwinking cane growers while attempting to win votes in the next general election.
Agriculture,Waterways and Sugar Industry Minister Tomasi Tunabuna said Mr Chaudhry claimed growers were being ill-treated while speaking at an NFU meeting in Ba last weekend
According to Mr Tunabuna, the claims by the NFU general secretary that farmers were being treated like animals were signs of a drowning politician clutching at straws.
“As someone whose organisation misled Vanua Levu growers into abandoning their farms that had substantial tenure still remaining and move into Valelawa in May 2000 where they lived like refugees in a camp and later left in the dark to fend for themselves, Chaudhry himself is guilty of treating growers like animals,” Mr Tunabuna said in a statement.
Mr Tunabuna said Mr Chaudhry recommended the deferment of the Sugar Cane Growers Council election under the pretext of implementing and completing reforms during his term as finance and sugar minister.
“In March 2000 when Chaudhry was PM and sugar minister, growers received the lowest third cane payment of $8 per tonne.
“He ignored pleas from growers to authorise the Fiji Sugar Corporation to make a special payment.”
Mr Tunabuna said 170,000 tonnes of sugarcane was left standing in the fields when crushing ended in January 2000, with refusal to provide any compensation to growers under Mr Chaudhry’s leadership.
“Under the Coalition Government, growers have received record cane price of as much as $105 per tonne in the last three years.
“They have received more subsidies on fertilizer and weedicides than any other time in the history of the industry.”
Mr Tunabuna said the Government was fully aware that the global fuel crisis and declining price of raw sugar on the world market is having an adverse impact on the sugar industry and livelihood of growers.
“That is why despite the low cane forecast price of $57.40, Government has decided that the payment for the 2026 harvesting season will fully comply with the guaranteed price of $85 per tonne.”
