Fiji’s sugar industry can bounce back if we can attract private sector investment and venture into value-adding instead of focusing on raw sugar sales alone.
This, according to former prime minister and Fiji Labour Party leader Mahendra Chaudhry.
“We must look at successful industries like Mauritius for example – they have managed to entice private sector investment and value-add by producing special sugars for different markets,” he said.
“We are only looking at raw sugar production and this has to change.
“In 2007, there was interest from Japan to value-add in Fiji by producing ethanol, and this is certainly something we could relook at.”
Mr Chaudhry also said instead of looking at increasing land area under cane, government should focus on increasing yield per hectare.
“We must look at why our yield per hectare is low and look at best practices internationally that could help us increase this.”
The global yield per hectare average is 71 tonnes of cane per hectare of land. Fiji’s average yield per hectare was 47 in 2015, 38 in 2016, 43 in 2017, 46 in 2018 and 48 in 2019.
Mr Chaudhry said another issue impeding development was the low 30-year cane lease.
“If we want to attract private sector investment then we will need longer leases. But we must ensure that everyone benefits, especially the indigenous landowners.”
