THE Fiji Sugar Corporation is keen to continue pursuing Asian markets for raw sugar because of growing demand for high quality sweetener.
FSC chief executive officer Graham Clark made the comment as 34,000 tonnes of sugar — 20,000 tonnes from Malau in Labasa and 14,000 tonnes from Lautoka — was loaded on the MV Erradale that left for China on Thursday.
“There’s a lot of exciting opportunities in those markets,” he said.
“China is looking for Fiji sugar with the right quality, but this also depends on the price, and we need to ensure that we watch the world markets and if the price is right we hope to negotiate more sales to Asia. The last time Fiji exported sugar to China was decades ago, so it has been great to re-enter this market as we believe it will be a growth market for Fiji’s sugar.”
According to Mr Clark, there continues to be a high demand for sugar grown and produced in Fiji.
He added that the Chinese and Japanese markets in particular looked promising given their large population base and their food processing volumes being one of the largest in the world.
Prior to Thursday’s shipment, the FSC also shipped 35,000 tonnes of sugar on the MV Rodina, which carried 20,000 tonnes of Fairtrade sugar to Europe with the remaining 15,000 tonnes earmarked for the UK. There will be a total of five shipments scheduled between now and March 2019.
