Support the ailing sugar industry
FIJIANS need a new sugar mill in Penang. The Penang Sugar Mill, the fourth largest in Fiji out of the four mills – Rarawai, Lautoka and Labasa – was logistically placed to serve the thriving sugar cane belt of the Rakiraki region with a thriving population of very eager sugarcane farmers, who helped the mill crush 214,746 tonnes of cane in 2008 – the highest in the 2008-2015 period for which we have data (Sugar Cane Growers Council, Annual Report 2015).
The impact of the closing down of the mill has had major repercussions on the number of active sugarcane farmers, and also on the crop, as a viable product when the transportation of the harvested crop has to be carted by lorries by road all the way to the Ba or the Lautoka mills – some 55 to 75km away. It simply does not make economic sense, but the Fiji Sugar Corporation (FSC) is just keeping the industry alive by granting transport subsidies to lorries, many of which are their own.
Whatever the case in the 70:30 share of profits to the farmer and the miller, the above costs are ingested and finally at the end of the day, the sugarcane farmers are forking out the bulk of the extra needless burden of costs. This activity is not sustainable, and unless addressed, will marginalise existing farmers, many of whom have left the industry to our nation’s detriment. Asking for a new sugar mill for Rakiraki, from the outgoing FijiFirst BainimaramaSayed-Khaiyum government, had fallen on deaf ears.
Rakiraki in its peak of its success, used to have 1723 (2015 figures from the SCG Annual Report) active farmers, much more than Tavua (1645) and Sigatoka (1129), and only a few hundred behind Lautoka (2093) and Nadi (2168). Thus, the economic potential of helping set up an enterprise which will put food on the table directly or indirectly for over 50-80,000 people on a long-term sustainable basis, should be fully supported nationally.
Not that the request for a mill is too much to ask as Fiji has had many mills in the past, and only since 1959 have we had only four mills, according to Rasheed A. Ali and Jai P. Narayan, who have written a detailed history and overview of its structure and operations (Pacific Economic Bulletin, 1989, Vol. 4 No. 2), which shows that Fiji has had a long and varied history of trialling many sugar mills, which did successfully work.
The authors found that mills were initially located at the Wakaya Island, two in Suva and ten in Nausori – in the Rewa valley, one of which was a very large-scale mill and was in fact the first place in Fiji to be lit up by electricity. However, within two years many of these mills closed down as the lack of adequate sugar content made it uneconomic.
Thus, logistically speaking, purchasing and setting up a largescale mill able to crush about the same amount – about 200,000 tonnes – that the Penang Mill used to do, is not a technical or scientifically unfeasible project. Financing it also is not an issue given that to set-up and successfully run a sugar mill will costs far less than the cost burden suffered by the Fijian taxpayers during the COVID-19 era grounding of planes, which cost them $38m per every single month, for the only the parked planes at the Nadi International Airport, without any income.
In fact, Fiji can and should buy and set up at least three to six mills with a matter of urgency; one each in Penang, Tavua, Nadi and Sigatoka; as the bare minimum. Economic output and activity will instantly rise by more than 200 to 500 per cent, and we will see lots of active farmers coming back to the fold, including the younger generation. Plus, we will have employment for chemists, engineers, mechanics, drivers, weighbridge and other technical staff, labourers, grass cutters, lines-persons, field staff etc. – that will be doing wonders for our nation.
Very good sugar mills cost about $7m (Indian 25 Crore Rupees); these are low-cost high efficiency mills, transportable as different units, and assembled with ease and many reputable Indian companies manufacture them. (https:// www.indiamart.com/proddetail/ sugar-plant-14685003673. html?pos=1&pla=n). The full set up includes, amongst other miscellaneous items, the sugar plant, sugar cane crushers, hopper dryers, centrifuges, evaporators, rotary vacuum filters, vacuum pans, crystallisers, juice heaters, and rotary dryer for bagasse, for example.
The railway lines and other ancillary buildings and water supply lines, and waste discharge facilities, are all hopefully intact, including the land and the railway tracks. Thus, at Penang, a new mill can be set up very easily for under $8-10m at the old site of the Penang Sugar Mill in Rakiraki. Elsewhere the $7m mills can be set up with a further infrastructure cost of a maximum $7-8m, totalling only about $15m per mill, with all plant and infrastructure costs.
A small $7-10m sugar cane mill, could be a blessing, and a lifeline to resuscitate a demoralised and dying sugar farming community and help revive much needed economic activity and growth in the Rakiraki region. This would be akin to the heart beating fully again, and the economic activity generating food and sustenance again to the very hard-working community of the region again, as the people were accustomed to historically.
We all know that the tourism sector literally died during the impact of COVID-19, thus it makes sense to support our sugar industry also. At least I personally thought that the former PM, when leaving office at the end of this term, would and in hindsight could have boasted of leaving a great legacy behind – and maybe he could have named the Penang Mill, the Bainimarama Mill instead. However, this task will now be left to others who follow after him.
Growing up as youngsters, our elders often told us: “Do not to put all your eggs in one basket”.
Thus, we Fijians cannot rely only on tourism alone as had clearly been taught to us by the COVID-19. Fijians in the short to medium 5–10-year period, should plan for not only one, but at least two small low-cost mills of the type mentioned above – one each in Nadi and Sigatoka respectively. However, in the very short 3-5 years plan the incoming government should support the commissioning of a low-cost sugar mill at Penang with a matter of urgency, and call it the People’s Sugar Mill, if not Rabuka Sugar Mill.
This would be a visionary short term urgent aspiration of the new aspiring government; the funds specifically sourced from a major aid program from a combination of the Australian-New Zealand-Britain-EU-Japan consortium including the Indian government, who have been very helpful so far, and would probably eagerly support such a great development proposal and get fully behind the plans, to support such a worthwhile initiative for our nation.
We have noted the recent interest of the Americans in the region, and thus we could also possibly approach them. Given their recent help and military aid being given to Ukraine in the trillions of dollars, this small aid package from the Americans, would be ‘chickenfeed’ for them, if they are at all serious to get involved in the region, due to their recent geo-political concerns of other nations’ posturing in this region.
■ is a professional meteorologist and Associate Professor of Meteorology, Fiji National
University. The views expressed are his own and not necessarily shared by this
newspaper.