NADI – Fiji’s sugar industry has taken a massive hit from Cyclone Winston, and will struggle to produce at the next harvest, the Fiji Cane Growers Association says.

The category five cyclone, one of the most powerful ever in the region, hit Fiji on February 20, with wind gusts of up to 330 kilometres per hour.

Association CEO Mohammed Rafiq told ABC’s Pacific Beat the extent of damage to the country’s sugar cane crop was substantial.

“We can see all the farms are flattened, the canes have been uprooted. I would say extensive damage has been done to the sugar cane farms,” he said.

Rafiq said it was now too late to plant a second crop, so the amount of cane available for crushing at this year’s harvest will be small.

“Even if we do the planting now, we face so many problems – it won’t be harvested in this season, so one season would be gone,” he said.

“The other thing is if we tell the farmers to do the planting – but they don’t even have a house to live in, so how can they do the planting now?”

Rafiq said the cyclone damage was a massive blow to the sugar cane farmers, who already struggled on low incomes from the sugar they harvest.

“In previous years we saw that slowly the sugar industry in Fiji was becoming viable and the crops were improving, we were getting good returns – but now the farmers will not be able to produce what they were expecting.

“Now the worse has come when whatever little money they were getting from the crop, the crop has been ruined, and their houses have been devastated.”

Preliminary estimates by the Fiji Sugar Corporation set the damage caused by cyclone Winston to sugar cane crops in the country at US$38.6 million.

The president of the Lautoka Cane Producers Association said they have lost up to 80 per cent of this year’s crop.

Parbindra Singh said he expects this figure will rise because many areas have yet to be assessed.

Singh said in some parts of west Viti Levu farmers have lost their entire crop.

“Basically there will be no crop in Penang and Ra association, that is the Rakiraki association, but as far as the Lautoka mill is concerned we might have thirty per cent of cane, maximum.”

The opposition National Federation Party has says the Fiji government needs to create a US$50 million rehabilitation fund to save the sugar industry after Cyclone Winston.

NFP Leader Biman Prasad says once the government addressed the immediate needs of food, water and shelter it needs to look at the medium to long-term needs of the economy.

Prasad, who is also an economist, says the sugar industry forms a pivotal part of Fiji’s economy and it now lies in tatters.

“Many of the towns and cities like Lautoka, Ba, Rakiraki, Tavua depend on the sugar industry for their survival. This is why a very well-planned and a large rehabilitation package would be necessary if we are to get the sugar industry back on track for 2017.

“What the government would need to do, and all those international partners who are to assist the sugar industry, would be to look at a very, very clear, extensive rehabilitation package.

“Both at the farm level and at the farmer’s level itself, in terms of their livelihoods.”

Meanwhile, growers of kava in Fiji are flooding the market with their goods as Cyclone Winston uprooted their plants, forcing them to harvest en masse.

The latest estimates on the damage caused by Cyclone Winston in Fiji are US$226 million dollars.

Fiji TV reports damage to Fiji’s roading infrastructure has been put at US$64 million.

The agriculture sector is estimated to face costs of more than US$100 million and education’s losses are US$25 million.

At final count, 18,154 homes and buildings were damaged by the cyclone.

The National Disaster Management Office’s director, Akapusi Tuifagalele, says the focus is on rebuilding schools after more than 240 around the country suffered damage.

Due to extensive infrastructure damage, 25 schools remain closed, while another 21 schools are yet to re-open because they are still being used as evacuation centres.

- PNC sources