Former parliamentarian Niko Nawaikula has questioned the Government’s plan to build a new sugar mill, saying it misses the real issue facing Fiji’s sugar industry.
Mr Nawaikula said the problem was not infrastructure, but a lack of sugarcane.
“Most of the land that could support the industry is underutilised, mismanaged, or completely idle. Without cane in the fields, a modern mill will have nothing to process,” he said. In response to a statement made by Sugar
Minister Charan Jeath Singh for a new mill to be constructed in the West, he said, claims that the new mill would create jobs were misleading.
“Without enough raw material, the mill won’t run, and if the mill doesn’t run, there are no jobs to offer.”
He said the Government needed to focus on what farmers really needed — which were fair cane prices, affordable fertilisers, and secure land leases. “Fiji doesn’t need another mill. It needs more cane in the ground and more farmers in the fields.”