AS a country we should stop fooling ourselves about reviving the sugar industry.
Finance permanent secretary Shiri Gounder told the Dialogue Fiji National Budget Forum in Nadi this would not be possible, adding that it could cost the taxpayers billions of dollars.
He made the remark in response to Fiji Sugar Corporation chief executive officer Bhan Pratap Singh, who said the corporation was considering major operational restructuring, including the possibility of replacing Viti Levu’s two existing sugar mills with a single new mill.
“So, should we build a new mill? Where’s the money to build the new mill? FSC, if it’s an insolvent entity, does not have the money to build the mill,” Mr Gounder said.
“Should the taxpayers put in more money to build the mill for an industry that’s dying a natural death? I don’t think so.”
Mr Gounder said given that there are a lot of farmers involved and there is a history to the sugar industry, there are farmers who are dependent on it. “However, as a country we should stop fooling ourselves about reviving this industry.
“Because we can’t, it is going to cost us a billion dollars if we try.
“And if we realise after spending a billion dollars that we can’t revive the industry as mentioned by Dr Ahmed Shakeel, its taxpayers’ money down the drain.”
He said the sugar industry issue was a sensitive topic that needed discussions on its survival.
“As Government we are providing $100million dollars to support cane price and all the other subsidies to the sugar industry.
“When we are allocating funds, we have to decide how much we are providing for yaqona, how much should we provide for dalo, and there’s hundred thousand people doing vegetable farming and there’s thousands of people planting dalo.
“And we need to put money in cocoa farming and ultimately, I think in the better interest of the farmers.”
