The Secretariat of the Pacific Community SPC is presented with a unique opportunity to address some of the challenges to Fiji's sugar industry. The Secretariat of the Pacific Community SPC is presented with a unique opportunity to address some of the challenges to Fiji's sugar industry, and realise new opportunities for import substitution in the horticulture sector, while addressing the land use management and sustainability challenges facing the sugar belt region.
The sugar sector faces numerous challenges created by the end of the Sugar Protocol and price support,' Ratukalou said. He explained that Fiji's sugar production had fallen from a peak of , tonnes in to less than half that figure today, and the price paid to the farmers had dropped from? Mr Meganck commented that Fiji will continue to enjoy preferential access to the EU market under the Market Access Regulation until pending the application by Fiji of the interim Economic Partnership Agreement as well as certain price guarantee mechanisms until , but the current Fijian cost of production cannot be sustained in the long run, and the industry is on the verge of collapsing if strong and appropriate measures are not taken immediately to recover efficient costs before the international market price returns to its normal trends.
The objective of the Improvement of Key Services to Agriculture project is to cushion the economic and social impacts of the sugar restructuring by supporting a diversified, market-driven agriculture and supporting fair-trade associations that provide additional revenue to farmers.
SPC will assist cane farmers to improve the income they receive from their present sugar cane production through the assistance to fair-trade and to reduce their dependence on cane farming by assisting them to diversify into horticultural crop opportunities.
In , SPC also supported the sugar cane growers of the Labasa area to re-organise as a FairTrade certified co-operative. The big increase in demand for Fair Trade chocolate in the UK has increased the demand for Fair Trade sugar, with few countries currently able to supply it.
