fiji talanoa

With Sue Wendt,

in Suva

With British housewives facing a sugar famine in November, Fiji, ironically, was missing out on booming world sugar prices. News of record prices like $F1115.66 per ton being paid in London had Fiji Sugar Corporation share holders beating their breasts in frustration.

Fiji's No 1 industry is beset with problems. With the cane crushing season nearly over, the FSC looks like being hard put to fulfil established sugar contracts and other regular markets, let alone cash in on the soaring world prices. It was the same last year. In its recently-released annual report, the FSC recorded a drop in profit for the year end ing March, 1974. The net profit of $974,458 was $73,364 below the profit for the previous year, when the mills were owned by CSR Ltd of Australia.

During the previous season, the CSR profit fell by nearly $600,000 because of hurricane damage costs. Although the FSC didn't face a hurricane in its first year of operating, the season saw poor crops and exchange rate fluctua tions.

The production target for the 1973 season was 408,000 tons from 3,019,000 tons of cane. The actual amount of sugar produced was only 296,479 tons from 2,456,281 tons of cane crushed at the four mills. Many farmers failed to meet their harvest quotas or even their basic farm allotment.

Despite the profit drop, Fiji Sugar Corporation directors re commended payment of a 7? per cent dividend to shareholders.

Prospects for the 74 season don’t seem much brighter for the FSC. It is predicted that fuel costs for the industry could rise to $600,000, and already there are fears that sugar output will fall short of the minimum require ments.

Meanwhile, canefarmers have received their second payment for cane crushed during the 1974 season. The total payments to date are $11.50 per ton—the highest price yet paid in Fiji—and a third payment in June will take the price for this year’s crop to $l5 a ton.

Tourism, the dominion’s No 2 industry is also feeling the pinch, with visitor-growth rates down, British Airways due to pull out of Nadi Airport from next March and hotels half-empty in November and early December.

For the first time, locals were being offered discounts of up to 50 per cent at several Viti Levu hotels and even popular Tai Island resort, off Lautoka, was offering a 25 per cent discount to locals up until mid-December. The newest outer island resort, Treasure Island, was allowing a 50 per cent reduction.

The newly opened Naviti Resort on the Coral Coast was suffering teething problems, not the least of them in the area of service.

Friends of mine, staying there a week after the official opening, said it took an hour and a half to receive breakfast in their rooms. Only four rooms were occupied that weekend. But things will improve. . . .

Another Naviti Ltd hotel, the Isa Lei in Suva, is for sale, as is the Hillcrest, also in Suva.

Construction of the Coral Gar dens Hotel on the Coral Coast was at a standstill in October- November, but the receiver of Australia’s Mainline Corporation, Mr James Jamieson, said in Suva that he expected to find a buyer for Mainline’s interest in the hotel.

Mainline has a majority share holding in the three-quarters complete hotel through its sub sidiary, Mainline Fiji Ltd. As holder of a first mortgage, the

First National City Bank is also eager to find a buyer for the Coral Gardens.

At Pacific Harbour, Deuba, there is no sign of new hotel construction, although the area is beginning to resemble the luxury residential resort promised by its developers. The first 40 private villas are due to open in Decem ber and those who last saw the development as mud and marsh land will be pleasantly surprised to see a number of high-standard homes, swimming pools, flourish ing gardens, motor-boats skim ming down man-made canals and tar-sealed roads. The Prime Minister, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, a keen golfer, was to open the Pacific Harbour Golf Course on December 1.

Varying tariffs are charged for the villas, according to their size and whether or not they have swimming pools. Introductory rates include deluxe two-bedroom villas with swimming pool at SFSS per night (without pool SF4B) and a standard two-bedroom villa with pool at SF4S per night (SF3B without pool).

Costings are subject to such fluctuation that Fiji hotels are re luctant to set tariffs for more than a few months. The Fijian, 288room luxury hotel on Yanuca Island, recently hiked its single rate tariff from $2O to $26 and the double rate from $26 to $32.

For single accommodation in a suite, you’ll now pay $42.50. For a deluxe suite, the single rate is $55.

Those rates are for accommo dation only. With three meals and a reasonable liquor consumption, a visitor’s minimum daily cost would be around $40 —and that’s a conservative estimate.

The number of visitors to Fiji during the first seven months of this year fell by 0.5 per cent, com pared with the same period in

1973—a bitter blow for sections of the industry counting on an increase of at least 10 per cent.

Last year Fiji’s gross earnings from tourism totalled $46.3 million —an increase of 25 per cent over 1972. In terms of visitor numbers, the increase was 12 per cent. We won’t get figures for this year’s tourism earnings until well into 1975, but the growth rate doesn’t look good.

Earlier this year, it was suggested by some members of government that the growth rate of Fiji tourism should be controlled. The guestion was—what would be a desirable growth rate?

A Fiji Tourism Planning Committee was established at the 1974 Tourism Convention, held last April, The committee’s man- W3S . , , ® . to u stuby economic and social benefits and costs associated with various levels of tourism growth; • to study the constraints on growth; • within 90 days to recommend to government achievable and desirable growth rates.

The committee, consisting of Dr lan Ernst, Mr Robin Smith and Mr Richard Warner, all with vast experience in Fiji tourism, parti cularly its problems, prepared three thoroughly-researched papers, and presented these and their conclusions to government three months ago. Nothing more has been heard.

Among other things, the com mittee concluded that Fiji has the physical capacity to maintain an 18 per cent yearly growth rate in visitor arrivals, and that "any lower growth rate would be waste ful of Fiji’s resources and would not produce any discernible benefit." The thing now, then, is to attract the visitors back again!

A hopeful note came from the Fiji Visitors’ Bureau manager in North America, Mr John Holmes, who said the number of US visi tors to Fiji had dropped as low as it would go. The only way from now on was up. . . .

Meanwhile, we are all (?) tightening our belts in response to a plea from Fiji’s Minister for Finance, Mr Charles Stinson. In November he warned Fiji people

to be ready for harder times and ordered a tighter credit squeeze.

He appealed to people to defer buying non-essentials until at least 1976 and said the govern ment had instructed banks to clamp down on unnecessary credit. He confirmed that inflation had jumped from about nine per cent 12 months ago to between 18-20 per cent and added that the country's foreign reserves were expected to fall by about $7.9 million this year—and next year “even more frighteningly" by $27.2 million, to under $3O million.

However, he said (perhaps to prevent us all jumping out the nearest window) he believed Fiji was in a better position than many other countries to ride the crisis out.

Many people feel the same way, despite the continuing exo dus of skilled and other workers to Canada and elsewhere. We mav find, though, that the "good life" really belongs to those who've never left their villages, and that notices saying "Gone fishing" are posted on everv door. . . .