A loan will be taken out to build a new sugar mill in Rakiraki, Minister for Sugar Charan Jeath Singh said at a farmer’s consultation meeting in Rakiraki on Thursday.
The Penang Mill in Rakiraki was closed in 2016 after it sustained severe damage during Severe Tropical Cyclone Winston.
Mr Singh, accompanied by Fiji Sugar Corporation’s (FSC) New Zealand-based board member Nitya Reddy and executives, visited the old mill site area in Rakiraki on Thursday.
“We have visited the old mill area today and as this Government has promised, we are going to make a new mill in Rakiraki,” he said.
“That is to alleviate the problems that you face by taking the cane to Ba at the moment.
“What we want to make here is whether it will be an ethanol plant or a refinery – we are still discussing this.
“But its government’s policy that we will make a mill there – we are working on it now.
“We are talking to suppliers in India and we will see where we can source the loan from to make the mill. It is estimated the new mill will be built at a cost of $100 million.”
