[Photo: FILE]
A total of five million dollars has been allocated from Ministry of Agriculture’s 2025/2026 budget to support sugarcane farmers in meeting the rising fuel cost for cartage and mechanical harvesting.
The funding has been re-allocated from its existing programs from the Sugar Industry and Agriculture sector.
According to industry records, approximately 4.6 million litres of diesel fuel was utilized by lorries, locomotives, mechanical harvesters, and tractors for harvesting and carting cane in the 2025 season.
This excludes about 1.2 million litres used by the Fiji Sugar Corporation diesel generators at the sugar factories during cane crushing.
The Ministry says from the 4.6 million liters, about 2.3 million litres was consumed in the first three months, from June to August.
Minister Tomasi Tunabuna says confirms that the five million dollars will be used to subsidize diesel fuel at $2.00 per litre and will only fund the lorries, mechanical harvesters, locomotives and tractors that will be used in the cane harvesting and cartage activities.
He says the fuel subsidy will cover the period starting from today to 31st August 2 as temporary relief.
Tunabuna says all lorries, tractors used for cane cartage, mechanical harvesters and locomotives must be registered with the Fiji Sugar Corporation and must comply with the Land Transport Authority requirements.
He adds that the funding of $2.00 per litre diesel fuel subsidy will go directly to the sugarcane farmers.
However, the mechanism to distribute the subsidy will be decided collectively by the three parties including Fiji Sugar Corporation, Sugar Industry Tribunal and the Sugar Cane Growers Council and the parties will ensure that there is no double dipping by the beneficiaries.
The monitoring and verification of fuel subsidy utilization will be strictly monitored by Sugar Cane Growers Council and Fiji Sugar Corporation to ensure there is no misuse of the fuel subsidy.
The subsidy is on first-come-first-serve basis and will take into account the volume of cane harvested and delivered to the mills.
The program will end on 31st August 2026, or until the subsidy has been fully utilized, whichever comes first.
The subsidy will be managed by Fiji Sugar Corporation and will be released through the existing payment system upon thorough verification.
Tunabuna says farmers are required to consult with the Fiji Sugar Corporation, Sugar Cane Growers Council and Sugar Industry Tribunal for further clarifications on the implementation and disbursement of the fuel subsidy.
The Minister is also requesting all the sugarcane farmers, lorry operators, mechanical harvesters and tractor operators and the sugar factory to commence with the sugarcane harvesting and cane crushing.
