As the National Farmers Union gets ready to have its protest march in Labasa later this morning, it is refusing to accept the Fiji Sugar Corporation’s statement that more than 2,000 cane growers in Labasa have been assisted under the government’s $10.2 million assistance package for growers.
NFU President, Surendra Lal had earlier said that none of this assistance has been provided to the cane growers in Labasa and this is the reason why they have decided to have a protest march and give a petition to the Prime Minister through the Commissioner Northern’s Office.
Fijivillage has sought clarification from the Fiji Sugar Corporation.
FSC’s Chief Operating Officer, Navin Chandra has stated that out of $10.2 million total grant given by the government, only $3.2 million went directly to pay off the loans taken by 3,949 cane growers in Viti Levu.
Chandra says on top of that, $7 million was paid off from the 4th cane payment deductions for 8,754 cane growers in Fiji.
He says $3.6 million out of this $7 million went to 2,039 Labasa growers out of the total 3,442 growers.
Chandra further says that 6,119 out of 11,674 total growers would have not got any or very little 4th cane payment.
He says the $7 million has allowed for all growers in Fiji to get net payment of $10.57 per tonne allowing all growers to prepare well for 2017 harvest season.
When Fijivillage presented these figures to NFU’s Surendra Lal, he first said that none of the cane growers in Labasa have been assisted and later contradicted the statement and said that 1,000 growers have not been assisted. But he claims that the cane growers will come out in numbers for the protest march today.
FSC stresses that they have a breakdown of all the Labasa growers who have been assisted and the amounts paid to them.
Meanwhile Lal also wants a guaranteed cane payment of $100 per tonne and a special $10 per tonne payment especially to help the Labasa growers for the new season.
When questioned by Fijivillage on the number of signatures gathered for the petition, Lal said that they have 420 signatures.
He says he is expecting 1,000 signatures by today.
When asked on why they have not been able to get 3,000 plus signatures as there are 3,442 cane growers in Labasa and they have been unable to get majority of the growers signatures, Lal says they could not go to all the cane growers as they stay far and wide.
We also asked Lal whether NFU General Secretary and Fiji Labour Party Leader, Mahendra Chaudhry will be part of the march in Labasa this morning. Lal says Chaudhry will not be there.
The march will start at 10 this morning in Labasa.
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