News

Growers to benefit from Fairtrade deal

November 30, 2017 5:13 pm

The Fiji Sugar Corporation has been able to secure sugar sales utilizing the Fairtrade Accreditation.

Chief executive, Graham Clark, says this commercial deal with Fairtrade has come through effective negotiations with a Europe based sugar refiner.

The refiner purchased 15,000 tonnes of Fairtrade certified sugar which was shipped on September 22nd.

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Each of the three grower’s co-operatives in the three mill areas will benefit to the tune of over six hundred and twenty-eight thousand dollars each as a result of the supply of this Fairtrade Sugar to Europe.

Clark says this is good news for the growers.

He says even more encouraging, is that this latest deal has also eventuated close to the conclusion of Fiji’s EU preferential agreements over a month ago.

Cane Producer’s Association, which is part of the sixty-six member grower
Associations that are affiliated to Fairtrade globally, was set up in 2012 to safeguard the interests of sugarcane farmers.

Fairtrade was launched in the 1990s in several European markets with the main objective to improve the position of small sugarcane growers in developing countries as their products were being undervalued in the global sugar markets.

The main economic provision and benefit of Fairtrade Standards in sugar, is the Premium of sixty US dollars per tonne of sugar above the negotiated purchase price.

Fiji, which is 100% Fairtrade Certified has been supplying to customers globally for the last two decades.