The Fiji Sugar Industry - A Brief History
Channel: Social Plug - Fiji
Date: 2021-07-30

On this episode of the Social Plug, we take a quick look back at the history of sugar in Fiji.

Sugarcane is a tropical, perennial grass that forms lateral shoots at the base to produce multiple stems, typically 3 to 4 m (10 to 13 ft) high and about 5 cm (2 in) in diameter. The stems grow into cane stalk, which when mature, constitutes around 75% of the entire plant. A mature stalk is typically composed of 11–16% fiber, 12–16% soluble sugars, 2–3% nonsugar carbohydrates, and 63–73% water.
Sucrose or table sugar is extracted from sugarcane in specialized mill factories.
The first sugar produced in Fiji was made on the island of Wakaya by Mr. David Whippy in 1862. 
The first cane sugar mill in Fiji was built in 1872 by Brewster and Joske and about 640 acres of cane was planted on the site now largely occupied by the City of Suva and by the end of 1874, there were four mills in operation, six by the end of 1875 and ten by the end of 1878. Most of these mills crushed for only a few years and only a few survived the crash in sugar price of 1884. The surviving mills were the Navua Sugar Mill, Penang Mill, Holmshurst (Taveuni) and the Rewa Sugar Company (Koronivia)
The arrival of the Colonial Sugar Refining Company led to the establishment of Commercially viable sugar mills. The first mill built by the CSR was the Nausori Sugar Mill on the banks of the Rewa River and began crushing in the 1882 crushing season. In 1883, construction began for its second mill in Ba, the Rarawai Mill. Another mill was built at Viria, also on the Rewa River, and crushed from 1886 to 1895. It was closed because it was too small to be viable. In 1890, the Labasa Mill was erected from a dismantled mill in Queensland. By 1926 all other sugar mills had closed down and the CSR owned the five existing mills in Fiji of which Nausori mill closed down in 1959.
Today, the Fiji sugar corporation limited (FSC) is Fiji’s sugar milling company and the largest in the South Pacific. It was incorporated by an act of parliament in 1972, to take over the milling in 1973. Today the FSC operates four sugar mills, the Lautoka mill, the Rarawai mill in Ba District, Fiji the Penang mill in Rakiraki in Viti Levu, and the Labasa mill in Vanua Levu. The mill in Lautoka is the largest in Fiji and once held the title of being the largest sugar mill in the southern hemisphere. Sugar produced in Fiji is exported to countries such as Spain, Italy, The US, The UK, The Netherlands and across the Pacific.

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