The Chief Guest – Minister for Multi-Ethnic Affairs & Sugar Industry- Hon. Charan Jeath Singh, Director Operations- Mr Naidu , Government Ministry Officials , All Industry Institutional Heads, Stakeholders, Staff of SCGF, Media Partners, Ladies and Gentlemen.
Good Morning, Bula Vinaka, Salam Walekum and Namaste.
I thank the Honorable Minister for his presence to be the chief guest.
This morning we will witness handing over of 52 New Farmer and 6 Mechanization Grant Agreements to recipients of Ba, Tavua, and RakiRaki. On behalf of SCGF congratulations to you all. The handover will also be held for 41 farmers at Lautoka and Nadi tomorrow. This will be the third batch of grant agreement handover for West while 3 batches have been successfully completed in Labasa. For West 2 batches completed. To Date we have assisted 223 growers with value of $1,012,475.97.
We still have number of application with Ministry for verification and hopefully we can clear the backlog within this month. In the current Budget Government has allocated $1m.
Since January this year, we at SCGF have introduced new products, which are as follows:
- Introduced Government Grant New Farmer Loan Product at 2.99% for 12 months and thereafter at 6%.
- Green Cane Harvesting Incentive- the Board has approved that all those growers indebted to SCGF, who harvest more than 75% of the green cane for the season, will get 2 percent interest reduction (from 6 % to 4 %) after completing of the season, for 12 months – January to December, subject to annual review, starting at the end of this season.
- There is Burnt Cane Rehabilitation Package and Repayment Holiday, if the cane is burnt off-season.
Going forward
1. SCGF Board has approved a special loan package for those farmers affected by termite at 2.99% for 12 months and thereafter at 6% with loan application fees discounted by 50%. This is expected to be launched by mid-December.
2. Farmer loyalty/ discount program has also been approved by the board and is expected by to be launched before year-end.
SCGF continues to review its strategic plans aligning with the Industry and National Development plan and we are committed to supporting the industry.
Thank you, Hon Minister, all the stakeholders, Ministry of Sugar, Media partners, growers present and the SCGF family and once again congratulations to all the recipient of grant.
Signed
Sheetal Shalini
Acting Chief Executive Officer
