Company News FROM SUGAR TO RICE

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28869, 14 April 1959, Page 19

Company News FROM SUGAR TO RICE

Fiji Project Of C.S.R. (N.Z Press Association—Copyrtahti SUVA. April 12. The Colonial Sugar Refining Company has announced a proposal to establish early next year a rice drying, milling, and marketing organisation in Fiji. The plan is subject to the Government granting sufficient protection against imported rice. The proposal is the sequel to the company’s decision to close the big Nausori sugar mill, 12 miles from Suva, late this year. The closing of the mill will mean a drastic reorganisation for several thousand canegrowers, mainly Indians. The company statement today says the new organisation will initially be prepared to purchase padi production in 1960 from about 5000 acres which has been growing sugar-cane. This means that towards the end of 1959 growers would be able to plant about half their total cane acreage with rice. This should produce more than 2000 tons of rice of good quality and should result in a saving of £150,000 in overseas spending in the first year. Within a few years the organisation could absorb for rice growing almost the whole 10,000 acres of sugar-cane land in the Rewa area, but this would depend on the amount of rice consumed in Fiji and the amount produced elsewhere in the colony. Last year Fiji imported 4230 tons of rice at a cost of £323.579.