High production costs threaten Fiji’s sugar industry, minister calls for crop diversification
Fiji’s Sugar Minister Tomasi Tunabuna said rising production costs have made sugar economically unviable, urging farmers to diversify into lower-cost crops. With cane production declining and mills underutilised, officials questioned further taxpayer funding despite continued demand for sugar.
Fiji’s Sugar Industry Minister Tomasi Tunabuna has said rising production costs are making the country’s sugar industry economically unviable, urging farmers to diversify into other crops as cane production continues to decline.
Tunabuna’s remarks came after Permanent Secretary for Finance Shiri Gounder said the sugar industry would be extremely difficult to revive without billions of dollars in taxpayer funding and questioned whether continued public investment in what he described as an industry “dying a natural death” was justified, Fiji Village reported.
Speaking during the Examining the 2026–2027 National Budget: Implications for Fiji’s Economic Hub session organised by Dialogue Fiji in Nadi, Gounder said he felt sorry for sugarcane farmers because of what he described as false hopes and promises that had left many struggling.
Responding to Gounder’s comments, Tunabuna said he had been raising the same concerns for some time. He said farmers had continued to believe the industry could recover because they had repeatedly been told that revival was possible.
The minister also questioned proposals by the Fiji Sugar Corporation to establish a new sugar mill, asking where the additional sugarcane would come from.
He said while mills continue to process the cane supplied by farmers, they are operating below capacity because of falling sugarcane production.
Tunabuna said the long-term solution lies in diversification, with farmers encouraged to supplement sugarcane cultivation by growing other crops to improve their incomes.
He said losses from one crop could be offset by returns from others and that the government was encouraging sugarcane farmers to cultivate root crops, vegetables and pineapples, which require lower production costs and can provide better returns.
Despite the industry’s challenges, Tunabuna said sugar remained an important crop because demand for it continues.
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Source : ChiniMandi
