Fiji and Sugar

from w
Almost every day there is news in the Fiji media of yet another mill breakdown or the difficulties for cane farmers, some having to feed cane-cutters while they wait for news to cut more cane. It's not a money-making business as costs are very high when compared with the income. There was even a story that sugar was short in the shops in Labasa. Now that surely is ironic. We are familiar with sugar cane farming as several members of our family have cane farms and also we have lived in Labasa, Lautoka and Rakiraki - all sugar mill towns. These days though there is an urgent need for people on the land to diversify.Here's what was written on the Fiji Labour Party website recently.

The grim state of the sugar mills
[posted 6 Sep 2010,1530]
Crushing last week virtually halted at all four sugar mills while loaded cane trucks piled up at the mill gates - and the quality of cane in the fields deteriorates every day under prolonged drought conditions.

In Labasa, 30,000 tonnes of harvested cane is lying in the fields. The mill broke down Monday week (August 30) but FSC continued to issue harvest quotas throughout the week until Friday. FSC has not said when the mill will resume crushing again. Nor is it releasing any information to growers regarding the stoppage.

Penang: the mill was out all last week. It began steaming this morning with the expectation that the machines will start rolling later today. Crushing stopped eight days ago on 29 August as a result of boiler problems which have persisted since the start of crush.

Lorries that queued up outside the mill, were told Friday that crushing will resume on Monday, September 6. Lorries were not initially allowed to offload in the stock pile bay even though the facility is intended for such contingencies.

Rarawai: mill has been down for most of the week – it stopped on 31 August with crushing expected to resume today at 3pm.

Lautoka: the mill has been crushing intermittently on a stop/start basis
The situation is simply untenable for cane growers who are losing heavily financially as a result of the stoppages. Their plight is further aggravated by the continuing drought as the standing cane in the fields dry up and lose weight.

The crop size for the 2010 season has already been revised to 1.8 million tonnes due to the prolonged drought. With the dismal performance of the four mills, the average TCTS ratio is more likely to be 14:1 by season’s end. At this rate, FSC sources say, they would be lucky to make 125,000 tonnes of sugar for 2010 – the lowest ever in the industry’s history and almost 40,000 tonnes below the much reduced 2009 production.

Based on these figures and the depreciating Euro, farmers may receive less than the already low forecast price of $45 per tonne of cane. This will hardly meet their costs of production, harvesting and transportation and may force many of them to exit the industry to concentrate on other better paying agricultural pursuits.

At this critical juncture, it is patently clear that the current administration has no idea how to address the fast deteriorating position of the industry. In two years, it has brought the industry to the verge of collapse. Under the guise of de-politicising the industry, it has played its own brand of politics and tinkered with key industry institutions which held FSC to accountability.

The situation is now extremely grave not only for the farmers and the landowners, but for the entire nation which is still dependent on the sugar dollar for its economic health. It is also sad news for the 20% of the population – 200,000 people - who still depend, directly or indirectly, on the sugar industry for their livelihood.

What is the solution?

The FSC chairman who lapped up the good life living in the lap of luxury in the past two years has departed. Growers’ organisations have called for the resignation of the entire FSC board which should take responsibility for the current state of the mills.

We now call on the Sugar Minister to step down as he has failed miserably to provide any leadership or guidance at this critical juncture of the industry’s history. But that alone will not resolve the issue. There is no other way but for Fiji to re-establish good relations with the international community in order to access the funds needed to revitalise the sugar industry. This means a return to democracy.

Some of the EU assistance of around $400 million for the industry has been lost but we can still save the day and access whatever is remaining from the 2010-2013 allocations. But that would require engaging with them and the international community generally to work out an acceptable road map back to constitutional rule.
Let us not delude ourselves with talks of reforms etc. The only way Fiji can save its economy is by restoring democratic and constitutional rule.

If the sugar industry collapses, the consequences for the nation will be dire indeed! Trumped up figures on the economy will not be able to save the day.
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and from FBC website this evening:
Fiji mill upgrade a failure: Commissioner
Monday, September 13, 2010

Taken from / By: Google
Mill upgrade works carried out at the Lautoka, Labasa and Rarawai sugar mills by vendors from India has been a failure says the Commissioner Western Commander Joeli Cawaki.

Cawaki is the first government official to make the statement.

Cawaki told FBC News in Lautoka that the upgrade work was to have increased production and improve milling efficiencies but this has not happened.

"The mill upgrade - for me - is a failure. It's supposed to be a success but it's a failure. We are not getting the TCTS that is supposed to improve it but on the other hand the performance is poor."

Cawaki who is also chairman of the Committee for the Better Utilisation of Land or CBUL and who also chairs the sugar industry stakeholders meeting says there has been too much crushing disruptions at the mill.

"For me as the chairman of the CBUL committee of the western division we have done everything we could do to acquire land, to go down to the farmers and for the farmers to produce what is needed, but unfortunately the sad story about the sugar industry is the mill that is not performing and this year the forecast price of $45 dollars is pegged at 10. 5 TCTS but the TCTS is over 13 at the moment. I don’t think the farmers will get their money out of the forecast price as it happened last year."

Cawaki says the NLTB renewed 54 land leases in the Nadi and Lautoka area for new farmers to come into the sugar industry this year.

Unfortunately due to the poor mill performance - he says it is not encouraging for these farmers to go into the sugar industry.

More stories from Malau

from w
The Fiji Times reporters have been busy in babasiga land this week; maybe not much is happening in Suva and politics this week!
It was the jetty the girmitiyas built
Sunday, October 05, 2008

Ashok Kumar and Noa Ratulegi at the Malau Bulk store
A dilapidated jetty stretches 100 metres out to sea and is one of the few remnants of an era when the girmityas toiled sweat and blood to build the sugar industry.

The old jetty which has withstood the battering of the sea is now dangerous to walk on but Noa Ratulegi, the security officer at FSC's bulk terminal looked reverently at it.

"My father used to tell me the stories of how the girmityas built the jetty," he said.

"They were really hardworking people," he added.

Beside the jetty and the new port that towers above, twisted rusted iron littered the shoreline, the remains of barges that once transported sugar to international cargo ships.

They are now skeletal reminders of the old FSC.

Bulk terminal engineer Peniasi Tamanitoakula said back in the days of the barges and the old jetty, people from all over Fiji and as far as Lau would arrive at Malau to load sacks of sugar into the barges. "There were no conveyor belts at that time," Mr Tamanitoakula said.

The 190 metre long new port was commissioned in 1978 along with a gigantic shed with the capacity to store 28,000 tonnes of sugar. Inside sugar rose in mountains to the ceiling. Three big towers with the collective capacity to store 21,000 tonnes of molasses dominate the yard. An average of six shipments of sugar worth millions is exported out of Malau every year. FSC has indeed been a long time fixture of Malau well before the landowners moved away from their old village site to where they are currently located.

(and another story! My word, those Malau guys had time on their hands to talk so much with the journalist! We've been to Malau and Vuo many times to visit relatives and Peceli has conducted church services there and many people are related through the Mali Island connection. Ah, that song 'Vorovoro, Malau kei Vuo!')

@theresa main story
THERESA RALOGAIVAU
Sunday, October 05, 2008

+ Enlarge this image
CLINGING to the edge of the sea Malau seemed like a little township with its brilliant lights that glistened over the waters.

You can almost mistake it for one especially when you are miles out to sea and the myriad of lights shining forth from that little corner of Vanua Levu grabs your attention as it did mine returning from Vorovoro Island one dark night.

The glaring lights is somewhat softened by its rays that dance and shimmer in the dark sea creating a picture of ethereal beauty.

But from land, the harbour basks in the glow of a captivating reddish orange sunset just too beautiful to describe.

In the harsh glare of the sunlight, the big metal tanks of oil, gas and molasses, the smoke from the bustling timber mill, the long 'T' shaped port that stretches out to sea and the gigantic tower on the hilltop that lords over it all outlines a metallic landscape that lies against a backdrop of stony faced cliffs.

Biggest industrial port in Vanua Levu

Malau holds the title of being the biggest industrial port in the Northern Division.

The other ports in Taveuni, Savusavu and Nabouwalu are different in that they are also passenger ports.

Malau's all industrial with big names like the Fiji Sugar Corporation who have a humongous sugar bulk shed and three towering tanks of molasses whose sweet pungent aroma perfumes the air.

Mobil's huge tanks of oil that supplies its Northern Division outlets stand out prominently on the hillside and precautions against dangerous hazardous material flash everywhere.

The Fiji Gas terminal is right next door storing cooking gas that are pumped in through long heavy pipes from the big visiting vessel berthed in the harbour.

At the end of the stretch stands the Fiji Forest Industries, the biggest setup around employing about 300 people, some locals from neighbouring Vuo Village, Malau settlement and Mali Island right across the harbour.

The newest entrant in this industrial picture is Digicel which has planted a tower atop a hilltop overlooking Vunimeli resident, Epeli Asaisea's home, and the sea.

Hundreds of millions of dollars exchange hands at Malau every year in the form of stock, making it a very important industrial port in the country.

Once just a land of caves

It's hard to imagine that not long ago really only less than 60 years ago Malau was littered with caves and spotted with hundreds of mango trees and pandanus.

Some of the mango trees remain but the caves were crushed and vanished under the onslaught of development.

Landowners of the Mataqali Ligaulevu, Tokatoka Nukuseuta, whose settlement is nestled between the high rise towers, remember the caves and the mangoes and how inhospitable Malau once seemed.

Clan head Iliesa Wainigale, 63, recalls that there was a lot of sand while now the sandiness of the area is only visible at low tide.

"Sa dua na ka na levu ni qaravatu ena gauna oya," he told me.

"Ia ena gauna oqo sa sega sara mada ga ni qai laurai e dua ka sa qai vo tiko ga e dua ia e yawa toka na vanua e tiko kina," he added.

Mr Wainigale also remembers the rocky landscape and how difficult it was to grow root crops in a commercially viable way. "Keimami sa bula tu ga ena qoli," he said.

"Ya na bula e bulataka tu ga mai o ira na neimami qase," he added.

Yet unbeknownst to Mr Wainigale's ancestors that out to sea was a deep treasure that would draw industrialists from all over. The channel of water that runs between Malau and Mali Island is 11 meters deep at its minimum easily allowing in big international cargo ships without the fear of shipwreck. The first industrialist was FSC that built a small jetty about 50 metres long during the CSR days, a legacy of the hardworking girmityas.

Remnants of this old jetty remain today, missing planks, almost sinking under the waves and completely dwarfed by the expansive new wharf commissioned in 1978. Other companies followed and what was once just a land of caves and a rocky landscape became a blessed piece of real estate for the Ligaulevu clan.

Always a port never an entry

The buzzing conversation in Malau right now especially amongst landowners is the possibility of government declaring it an international port of entry. Recently officials from the Ministry of Transport met with the Labasa Town Council surveying port of entry sites.

Malau competes with Balaga Bay in Savusavu for that recognition which is important because it carries the power of influencing prices of goods not to mention a boom of business in its vicinity.

Governments have stood and fell and they've all promised to declare Malau a port of entry, something landowners want but the Labasa Town Council, its public and business community fervently desire.

Town mayor Dr Pardeep Singh explained the ramifications: "Because of having to transport cargo from Savusavu and Nabouwalu to Labasa, consumers are paying additional costs," Dr Singh said.

"A port of entry here will reduce freight and costs, and additionally promote business and investment in Labasa Town," he added.

But with many promises unfulfilled, a belief that it could happen wanes and then peaks and then wanes again. Right now it's peaking after the scouting trip by officials but it will wane once weeks pass without any word.

The pulse of Malau

Irrefutably the pulse of Malau is its people. From the landowners that make long hikes through the jungle to reach their plantations, and scratch a living from the sea, to the industrial workers at the timber mill, oil, gas and sugar bulk terminal, they all make Malau happen.

Although different in their lines of work there is an underlying thread of unity about building the place because Malau is not just FFI, nor FSC. It is every face from the people of Ligaulevu to those at neighbouring Vuo, the industrialists and even Kiran Pillay at the grocery store.

The shroud of night

When night falls, softening the stark outline of the big tanks, the industrial port breaks forth in splendor. The lights, the dark sea, the deep shadows and the dying sun throwing out its last breath, all combine to make it the best time of the day.

As I sat on the seawall with little Vilimaina Talei, 8, and her mother Taraivini Maluka, legs dipped into the high tide, the lyrics of the favourite Fijian number, 'Vorovoro, Malau kei Vuo, Koro oqori au dau domona lo, Ni dau lutu sobu mai na buto, Lekaleka tu na sala ki Vuo,' strummed a beat in my mind.

A tall tale or two from Vuo

from w
Don't know what Peceli will say about these stories. When he comes back from church I'll ask him about it. They are the kind of tall stories that are told around the yaqona bowl perhaps. The name 'Noa' suggests that the name is -post Christian entry to Fiji, but the story sounds much older. There is a present-day Noa in Labasa who is a musician - I guess he's related.
from Fiji Times today:
The first man on Malau
Sunday, October 05, 2008

Ratu Peni Vuakanisakea of Vuo Village who is also a member of the Mataqali Ligaulevu and his relation Josefa Poe related the story of the conniving warrior on the run who first settled Malau. His name was Noa Ratulegi and he was an able warrior from Lekutulevu who was called by the Tui Labasa, the fearsome Qomate at Nasekula Village. Joining Qomate's warriors, Ratulegi was supposed to march into battle with Qomate and Tui Wailevu and his warriors to overpower chiefs in Seaqaqa.

Ratulegi never reached the battle fields in Seaqaqa but returned to Wailevu Village where only the women were left behind. Mr Poe said his ancestor had affairs with most of the village women impregnating them.

Almost a year later, warriors of Wailevu Village returned from Seaqaqa. Ratulegi fled the village but not before clubbing another man and stealing his takia which he used to flee to Mali Island where he sheltered for many years under the protection of the Tui Mali. He fled Mali Island when Qomate and his warriors arrived to battle Tui Macuata for ownership of Mali.

Mr Vuakanisakea said his ancestor arrived at Malau with a Mali woman called Taraivosa Ili and so began the 'kawa of Malau' in a cave about 10km from where Malau is today.
(and the second story)
Where wishes can come true
Sunday, October 05, 2008

Noa Ratulegi, who mans the gate at the FSC Bulk terminal, told me about Viriviri.

He said: "In that cave if you throw stones at the roof of the cave, you will get the man or woman you've been having the hots for," Mr Railegi said.

I must see this cave I promised myself. And the very next day armed with a camera, flip flops and dressed for the occasion I was off to Viriviri, struggling through the swampy mangrove, enduring the slashing

Para grass, stumbling over fallen logs and exposed roots with children from the village and my guide Josefa Poe and his wife. They answered my groans of pain with "qo sa voleka sara, vo walega e va na miniti".
Four minutes stretched into one hour but Viriviri was well worth the walk.

Viriviri is a cave formed by a big, black rock with a ceiling curved into an arc jutting towards the ground. There is a little opening towards the jutting edge of the ceiling.

Mr Poe who related the legend said their love struck ancestors, desiring someone would go to the cave, place a pebble between their toes and kick it out towards the opening in the ceiling. Legend has it if the pebble lands on the edge of the opening than man or woman being desired is won. But if not, better luck next time.