A Warning In Fiji
p. 61 · Read in the full issue
A warning that mechanisation might come to the Fiji sugar indus try because labour was getting close to pricing itself off the market was sounded by Mr J. S. (lan) Thomson in his report on the 1976 season. Mr Thomson is independent chairman of the Fiji sugar industry. He said an inevitable demand for mechanical cane harvesting would follow con tinuing rising labour costs.
"It (mechanisation) will be difficult to resist, and one and all should remember that it is the growers themselves who pay for har vesting labour out of their share of the sugar proceeds,” Mr Thomson said. “Harvesting is a grower’s cost and a grower’s responsibility under the current sugar cane contract.”