MINISTER for Agriculture, Waterways and Sugar Industry Tomasi Tunabuna says the ongoing dispute over cane prices must be viewed alongside existing government assistance already provided to growers, including fuel subsidies and other forms of support.
“As I’ve said, I think it’s just around this time, unfortunately, we have a crisis in the field,” he said.
“But I think when the election is coming, people will want to use that as a political tool.”
He said the Memorandum of Gang Agreement (MOGA) was a structured arrangement between farmers and service providers, particularly transport operators, and was based on forecast world market conditions.
“MOGA is an agreement between those who provide services to transport sugar cane to the mills and the farmers.
“Everything goes back to the world market price, the price at the market where our sugar has been exported to.”
He said Government had already moved to cushion input costs, particularly fuel, through targeted assistance measures.
“We wanted to address that by removing the increase or the difference in the increase of fuel by approving and securing $5million in fuel subsidy. That shouldn’t be the worry of the farmer, because the Government will pay that.”
The minister warned that misinterpretation of assistance packages was influencing expectations among growers, including calls for higher cane prices.
“If we misinform people, farmers, they will be swayed towards thinking that the other explanations are correct.”
He urged stakeholders to consider the full range of government support before making decisions that could impact harvesting and industry stability.
“Let me assure everybody that the Government is supporting them with other different forms of subsidy.”
