Potential for sugar

By JOSEFA KOTOBALAVU

30 October, 2019, 10:16 am
Published in The Fiji Times

MOHAMMED Rafiq has lived on his family’s 82-acre farm in Waiqele all his life, just 10 km outside of Labasa. The 51-year-old is a second-generation sugarcane grower.

Rafiq took over his father’s lease when he retired, believing this was the natural thing to do after his nine older siblings moved out of the family homestead Thirty years on, having navigated the ups and downs of the business and sugar industry, Rafiq embraces his role as leader of the Labasa Cane Producers Association, a 4000-strong community of farmers certified as fair trade producers.

“Farming is good because you become your own boss and not many realise but this work keeps you healthy too,” Rafiq said.

“I grew up on the farm and I didn’t have any other job to consider. I was younger than my other siblings, so my father kept me on the farm.”

Now a father of four, Rafiq believes none of his children will go into growing sugar, despite spending all their free time with him in the cane fields.

Rafiq is the first to praise the efforts of the Fiji Sugar Corporation (FSC) and the Government but worries about the future of the industry.

“The sugar industry has been very good for farmers like me. We have a guaranteed price now so we can make a good profit from farming sugarcane.”

He explained the introduction of mechanical harvesting has dramatically changed farmers’ ability to get more out of their crops. But Rafiq is worried about future generations’ interest in sugar, and wants to see more work put into making sugar cane farming an attractive economic opportunity for the young.

“There are a lot of ageing canefarmers around,” Rafiq said.

“Some have heard people say that by now the sugar industry would be dead but we can see that even up to now, there is money to be made. Hopefully there will still be interest in farming in the future.”

Rafiq said the association had a few young farmers in their mid twenties who left potentially lucrative white-collar jobs to get in on the sweet returns of sugar, and called on industry heads to help continue that trend.

“The FSC’s extension service which offers farmers technical support needs to be there for our younger growers and we all need to keep up with changing technology to support our industry.”

To farmers, he says the price is good, so plant more cane and work harder together.

At the launch of the FSC’s new “Sugars of Fiji” retail and export brand this week, Rafiq said: “This new brand is a great initiative for the industry.

The “Fiji” brand itself is great and having sugar be part of that is a great move. FIJI Water, Fiji Airways is a big brand and maybe one day Sugars of Fiji will be on par with those products.”

Rafiq added that some major issues still needed to be rectified for the full potential of the new brand and product to be realised.

The top priority, he said, was reducing or eliminating the practice of burning cane at harvest time. “Farmers burn their cane to get hornets out of their nests, and when we are running late on harvesting, burning makes the process faster,” he explained.

“But burning cane reduces the quality of our sugar.”

Rafiq added: “This year after a long time, I did not have to burn any cane because I harvested earlier and I also was able to get some labourers earlier.”

With the price of yaqona at an all-time high, Rafiq said the farmers who grow the plants from, which the traditional drink is made, are focused on their own farms and therefore not always available to cut cane.

Despite those challenges, Labasa growers continue to produce better quality sugar, Rafiq asserts, and he believes the secret lies in the intrinsic nature of those from the ‘Friendly North’ and also because that warmth is applied to each link of the sugar production chain.

“The whole chain, from the growers to the millers in Labasa, everyone is doing their part of the work so that is why

we are producing the best sugar up in Labasa!”

He added: “I think it’s the unity among the growers in Labasa that is very unique.

People are the friendliest in the North and so we have a much better relationship with each other and with the millers.”

Not having much choice by way of industry could be another reason.

“In the West, they have other options. In Labasa, there is nothing else — only sugar so we place a lot of priority on improving

our industry. We are more united about producing good sugar!

“People who say the sugar industry is  not viable must know what they say will not make a difference. Sugar is in our blood. Sugar is here to stay.”