Page 20 - IB Sept-Oct 2020

Fiji@50

George Shiu Raj (on the phone) and his farm manager in front of his new $300,000 cane harvester machine.

The onslaught of the impacts of climate change means the ment. This year, he poured F$1.3 million into his sugarcane
industry will also need to invest in boosting the resilience of business with the purchase of a $300,000 sugarcane mechani-
the crop. Reforms also need to continue especially in the area cal harvestor from India, together with five cane carting
of boosting sugar production and curtailing the supply of burnt trucks and a twin cab for his farm manager.
cane. When FSC closed down the town’s sugar mill in Penang, it
Measures also need to be introduced to restore the confi- was Raj who offered to buy the plant and manage it like pri-
dence of cane farmers as well as those in the private sector. vately owned sugar mills he had seen in Punjab, India.
This includes people like Nilesh Jaduram. “I was willing to buy Penang for $5m and I have engineers
After running his family’s construction business in Labasa in who were willing to run it for me. I am sure there would be
northern Fiji for a number of years, he decided to take a sab- overseas donors who would have been willing to assist us.”
batical by turning to sugarcane farming. On his 67 acre farm “But we need to up sugarcane production to 300,000 tonnes
in Seaqaqa, Jaduram uses 17 acres for sugarcane. in Rakiraki to make the mill viable, so we need to grow more
He believes though that a cane price of F$100 (US$46) per cane here.”
tonne would make sugarcane farming much more attractive.
“With cane cutters being paid $22 to $35 per tonne, and
cartage to the mill being $16.50 per tonne, farmers are some-
times left penniless when all expenses are met. The beauty
about sugarcane is that all that money, or most of it anyway
remains here in Fiji.”
Being a shrewd businessman, the young Jaduram does inter-
cropping by growing sandalwood.
Diversfying being the name of the game is something west-
ern Viti Levu business tycoon and former government minister
George Shiu Raj is also very familiar with. Almost half of the
buildings in Rakiraki town belong to him, and Raj is also a big
time sugarcane grower.
“I also grow watermelons in my farms, and I also export
kava. This is the way to do it, you should not just grow sugar-
cane.”
He has also invested in real estate, retail and entertain-

20 Islands Business, September/October 2020