Vanuatu nationals to engage in canecutting

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Picture: FT FILE

ABOUT 20 Vanuatu nationals are in the country to engage in a pilot canecutting program, says Sugar Ministry permanent secretary Yogesh Karan.

He said if the program proved successful, more Vanuatu labourers would be brought in the next season.

Mr Karan said the high labour rates being forced on canegrowers combined with requests for specific types of food and kava was a huge concern for government.

“Where we could assist, we have done so with the introduction of mechanical harvesters. “But the harvesters are not suited for areas where terrain is more than 10 degrees.

“Unfortunately, we have to have manpower and this is a concern.

“If we regulate rates then it could also become an issue because we may end up not having enough labourers.

“Sometime back we had spoken about getting labourers from abroad because if you speak to every second farmer they will raise this concern about shortage of labour. The best way we could assist was to get labourers very quickly from Vanuatu.”

Ministry of Sugar Industry director operations Sanjay Kumar said he and Mr Karan would meet with the Vanuatu labourers today.

“We wanted to see the logistics cost, how people would react and all those things. We have seen very positive feedback, particularly from areas like Nukuloa and Balevuto –– farmers have shown great interest. For farmers, a lot of the costs and demands are eliminated because everything is handled by the agent, there is no goodwill. The farmers only have to pay the canecutting rate. All the air fares and other logistic costs are borne by the labourers coming in from Vanuatu.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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