The Interim Finance and Sugar Industry Minister has cleared the air that there is no contradiction of policy or opinion, no chaos in the Cabinet decision to defer Sugar Cane Growers Council elections as reported in one of the dailies today.

Mahendra Chaudhry said the decision to defer the elections is the initiative of the Sugar Cane Growers Council and was agreed on by the representatives of both the National Farmers Union and the Fiji Cane Growers Association.

Chaudhry said the Council told the Sugar Commission Chairman John May about its unanimous resolution to defer elections until the completion of the reform program after which John May endorsed it in a letter to him.

He said May, in a letter to him has written that a complete review of the harvesting and transport arrangements is being jointly undertaken by the Industry and the SCGC from this year to next year. Chaudhry said any disruptions to the trials will have adverse effects as their won't be time to put in place alternatives to reduce costs to farmers before next year’s cane price reductions become effective which many farmers will not be able to sustain.

This come after concerns were raised several times by the Fiji Cane Growers Association on the reasons why the SCGC Elections have been deferred.