[File Photo]

Sugar Minister Charan Jeath Singh says he doesn’t dispute the findings of the World Bank’s Fiji Public Expenditure Report 2023, which has not presented a favourable picture of the industry.

The World Bank report says the current trajectory of Fiji’s sugar sector is unsustainable and has made several recommendations to fix the problems.

The report says that with health being prioritized more, long-term demand for sugar is declining.

The World Bank has forecast a bleak future for the sugar industry, but Minister Charan Jeath Singh remains positive that the industry will turn around.

“I don’t dispute what they have said because it’s not the fault of the World Bank’s report. It’s the failure of the last government. If they would have looked after the industry, well, I think the industry today, where it is would not have been there so we are positive, We want to bring the sugar industry back into its former glory and we have plans.”

Singh says the industry has to have many facets of production.

“We will actually have to go and do basically co-generation in all the mills, sell the power onto the national grid. We have to also bring an ethanol plant into Fiji which will bring in extra dollars in the industry itself, and we actually have to set up a refinery which will also give an added value to the sugar, so nothing has been lost that badly. The sugar production is declining, but we are putting some plans together.”

Singh says last year, the sugar production level stood at 1.7 million tonnes. He says he has challenged the Fiji Sugar Corporation to increase production by 200,000 tonnes per year.