We learned later that this massive building belongs to the largest sugar refinery in Fiji. It is located right on the outskirts of the city next to a large sign that says "Welcome to the Sugar City!" The city was built on the sugar industry. Its street plan is laid out parallel to the train tracks which carries sugar cane from 15 miles away, and it can stop traffic for up to 30 minutes as the train rolls slowly by. Lautokas's large Indian population was originally brought to this area of Fiji to work the sugar plantations over 100 years ago. These days, the sugar farms and refineries support a number of other businesses, families and people in Lautoka.
We arrived in Lautoka during cutting season so the most obvious connection to the sugar refinery that we could see was the trucking industry. Lined up on the street outside the gates of the factory were hundreds of old flatbed trucks packed high with cut sugar cane. Talking to the truckers, we learned that they get paid about $7 per ton they deliver and their trucks carry about 15 tons. They pay for their own expenses and when something goes wrong in the plant and they are unable to deliver their cane, they have to wait outside the factory for as long as two days because it would waste too much fuel to drive home and back again. Most of the truckers know each other and many are family members who have been driving cane to the factory for multiple generations. Trucks not only deliver the raw product, but they also deliver the finished product. At the Lautoka plant this means large white plastic bags which look like they should be carrying cement instead of slightly brown refined sugar.
Most of the sugar from the Lautoka plant is shipped out to other countries such as England. The refined sugar is stored in a huge warehouse and delivered onto the ship via a large conveyor belt that goes from ground level up six stories and finally onto the cargo ship.
A less obvious but very visible business partner to the sugar industry is the caustic industry. Caustic is a precursor to bleach and is used to clean the drums and pipes in the sugar plant when they become clogged with sugar build-up. The caustic dissolves the caked sugar enough that it can be scraped away by human workers. The caustic company in Fiji maintains its storage tanks right next to the sugar refinery since they are its main customers. Although there are other uses for caustic - this same company provides bleach for home use to the Fijian market - this company relies heavily on the sugar plant. This is a problem because recently sugar cane production has dropped, which has also reduced demand for caustic. Sugar production is down by half at some factories because many farms have had their land lease expire with no option of renewal. Another factor is that many farmers have started to burn their crop before harvesting. This burns off all the leaves of the sugar cane plant and only leaves the stalks making it easier to cut. The burning also destroys some of the sugar in the cane, lowering the amount of sugar that is processed (and the amount of caustic used by the company).
Its easy to see the large role that sugar plays in Lautoka's economy and the many connections it shares with other businesses in the area.
SMC
