Not so sweet: cane farmers struggle for profit

SUGARCANE farmers are just breaking even by getting paid $85 per tonne of cane while they are spending about $87 to produce one tonne with government subsidy, the Fiji Sugar Corporation has confirmed.
FSC’s head of agriculture, Lakshman Jayaraman told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) last week, without government subsidies, a sugarcane farmer will spend $137 to produce one tonne of cane and get paid $85 per tonne of cane.
He said in order to make a profit, farmers in Fiji were keeping ratoon crop where they made $40-$45 per tonne and weren’t planting fresh crop.
Sugar Ministry permanent secretary Yogesh Karan said the ministry’s budget is $49 million and out of that 3 per cent is operations and 97 per cent goes to the farmers.
“Really there is a misconception when people say Government is putting a lot of money into FSC,” he said.
“Government doesn’t fund any money to FSC, government guarantees the loans which FSC takes, and this funding goes directly to the farmers.”