The government of Fiji has upbraided the sugar sector’s leadership of between 2006 through 2022 for fostering ongoing meager production.

Admitting the industry’s patchy state, Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka on July 21, 2025 called upon a parliamentary committee for urgent sugar reforms.

The sugar industry of the south Pacific country benefits approximately 200,000 stakeholders, including tens of thousands of farmers who exclusively grow sugarcane (Saccarum officinarum).

It also nurtures the Fiji Sugar Corporation (FSC), one of the country’s biggest public companies, with majority governmental shares.

Yield Falls

The crisis reached a head in 2024, when production nosedived by 1.3  million tonnes, year-on-year, per the Ministry of Sugar. 

Early solutions included prolonging milling timelines to boost crush maximization, a move that the FSC rejected due to operational costs. 

After mills reportedly closed early in 2024 amid unharvested cane, the ministry offered 80,000 Fiji dollars ($35,040) to growers as compensation.  

In 2025, the souring farmer-and-industry rapport gained a new grievance in form of lease premium claims on plantation land. 

Franchise farming belts of Seaqaqa and Labasa in northern Fiji, alongside Western islands are at the heart of the claims.

According to opposition MP, Viam Pillay, the government had by July 2025 partially helped settle lease premiums with 978,200 Fiji dollars ($428,353). 

Pillay called for all stakeholders, from farmers to mill laborers, truck operators and co-ops to contribute sectoral decision-making. 

The reform calls by the PM and the opposition MP seek to rejuvenate a fast fading Fiji sugar production outlook. This is in reference to the sector’s heyday before the mid-1990s when cane output alone topped 4.38 million tonnes. And as the following statistics show, it was high time these glory days came back as costs are rising. 

Fiji Sugar and Cane Statistics 

Cane sugar is one of the most lucrative rural industries in Fiji. Commercial sugarcane  cultivation began around 1882 and a year later topped copra as the main agricultural export. By 2021, the sugar industry was accounting for 1.7% of the national GDP while the larger agricultural sector was representing 13.80%. In export terms, sugar and molasses lead most other categories at 8% of the 2021 export total. 

Production of both sugarcane and sugar however plunged, beginning 2000 to below 2,000 tonnes per annum, versus 4.38 million tonnes in 1996.  This plummeting also affected acreage, as farmers looked for other means of livelihood. In 1999, there were 64,535 hectares (ha) under cane while a decade later in 2019, acreage had nearly halved to 37,105 ha. By 2021, less than 11,400 farmers were operating, down from some 18,000 at the turn of the millennium. 

What inhibited recovery of cane production in Fiji from 2000 to 2025?  

Labor and transportation costs rank the biggest inhibitors of production revamp in Fiji’s sugarcane sector, in the 2000-25 context. According to Springer Nature, transportation and cane reaping costs absorb 50% of all cane production expenditure. Other inhibitors are low pay to farmers and limited land leases of 30 years at high premiums. 

Where does sugarcane grow in Fiji? 

With around 2% of the total landmass in Fiji under the sugarcane belt, two islands lead in acreage. One of these is Vite Levu in the west of the 840 island group that makes up the Fiji archipelago. There is also the northern Vanua Levu island, especially in such areas as Labasa, Seaqaqa and Sigatoka.