Prominent Ba canegrower Arun Sharma has questioned the decision to push back start-of-crush dates for the Fiji Sugar Corporation’s Rarawai Mill.
“We are ready to harvest,” he said.
“I can understand why they would have to delay the opening of Lautoka mill because Lautoka City is still a containment area,” he said.
“But Rarawai in Ba should go ahead as scheduled because we are not.
“We have farmers that are prepared for the new crushing season and most of our farms are ready.”
Mr Sharma said they were also anticipating a bigger harvest compared with last year.
“Tropical Cyclone Harold and a lot of flooding really affected last year’s harvest but this year, we see a good amount of crop ready to be harvested.
“The only problem we may have right now is getting canecutters.”
He said most of the farmers hired labourers from Tailevu and Naitasiri.
“We have spoken to canecutters from there that we usually hire and they are willing to travel to Ba but we can’t get them across the containment border.
“If an arrangement could be made to let the cutters travel to Ba, it would really help us with our harvest.”
Sugar Ministry permanent secretary Yogesh Karan said crushing dates for Viti Levu mills would be pushed back because of the risks associated with COVID-19.
He said the fact that about 70 per cent of cane was manually harvested and cutters were sourced from Tailevu, Naitasiri and other high risk areas was a serious concern.
The Lautoka mill was scheduled to start crushing on June 4, Rarawai on June 23 and Labasa on July 7.
