The Drama of Fiji by John

Author:John
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781462912650
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing

PART V

Economic and Social

CHAPTER 7

General Economy

With the exception of sugar cane farming, many aspects of the economic development of the Colony, especially in agriculture, have been neglected. Yet agriculture is the basic industry, employing about 60 per cent of the total occupied population (16, 36). Exports in that field accounted for 85 per cent of the total export trade in 1958, a representative year. The proportions of the products shipped out were as follows: sugar and molasses, 63.75 per cent; copra and copra products, 19.93 per cent; bananas, 1.33 per cent; and hides and skins, 0.14 per cent (16, 36).

The sugar industry has grown in importance during the past decade. Indian cane-growers for the Colonial Sugar Refining Company increased from 8,687 in 1953 to 10,590 in 1957 (55, 18). Sugar cane is by far the most important crop in Fiji in regard to the amount raised, the yield per acre, and its value as an export, which is twice that of copra and bananas together. The whole economy of the Colony depends on this major industry which earns about £8 million a year, more than half of the total revenue. However, it can be little further developed in the foreseeable future, for Fiji is restricted to a quota in the world's sugar market. The International Sugar Agreement puts a limit on the exports of sugar exporting countries of the world; and, therefore, on their production (19, 45). The acreage of sugar cane in Fiji has "more than reached" its uppermost limit and will not make any further appreciable increase in contribution to the general economy of the islands (16, 43).

The following figures for recent years illustrate the situation. The national basic allotment of sugar cane for Fiji for 1960, based on an export quota, and the amount to be sold locally was 1,532,300 tons. It was calculated for the production of 199,000 actual tons of sugar, the ratio of sugar cane to sugar averaging 7.7 to one (18, 41). The sugar export quota for 1961 was 170,000 tons (4, 191).

In 1962, 248,000 tons of sugar were manufactured, and 234,000 tons were exported. Sales of sugar in that year yielded about £10,000,000 as compared with some £6,300, 000 in 1961 (15, 28). The estimate for 1963 was 2,145, 000 tons of sugar cane to produce 275,000 tons of sugar. The harvest quota for 1964 was set at 2,300,000 tons of sugar cane and 300,000 tons of sugar (15). A British resident of Suva remarked to me, "When the sugar mills grind, there is plenty of money in circulation." The market is in New Zealand, Canada, and other countries of the British Commonwealth.

Due to the discoveries of the Colonial Sugar Refining Company which has its own research and experiment station, more sugar cane and that with a higher content of sugar is being grown on less land than before. At the time the sugar cane land at Nausori and the mill there were abandoned in 1959, at the end of that grinding

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