The Flour Mills Of Fiji Limited has today reiterated that the group will scale down its operations of two of its milling factories, Rice Company of Fiji and Pea Industries Limited due to the drastic changes in import duty on rice and peas.
FMF Chairman, Hari Punja stresses that 40 people will lose their jobs at Rice Company and Peas Industries because FMF will now import finished white rice and yellow split peas.
Punja also said that Chaudhry's recent statements that the reduction in the import duty for rice and peas will result in competition and price reductions are also misleading.
However, Interim Finance Minister, Mahendra Chaudhry said the interim government had to reduce the duty on imported rice as majority of the rice consumed in Fiji is imported.
Chaudhry said a similar step was taken for imported peas and companies like FMF should understand the interim government's decision to assist the poor in the country.
The Interim Finance Minister also said that there are other rice and peas milling companies in the country and wonders why only the FMF Limited is raising concern about the reduction of the duty.
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FMF to Scale Down Operations
