India to attend Fiji sugar meet

India will take part in a five-day meet in Fiji where local and international sugar researchers will share information on "erianthus", a sugar hybrid, the government said Wednesday.

"The International Workshop on Noblisation of erianthus has been made possible through the funding from the European Union under the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) sugar research programme," Xinhua quoted Fiji official Jai Gawander as saying.

Erianthus is a hybrid of sugar cane to increase yield and fibre in the cane via hybrid of Noble (normal cane) and varieties such as Mana (most commonly used for sugar production), the information ministry said.

The ministry said the meeting would see experts from China, India and Australia making presentations on their success stories and on how they achieved this hybrid when other sugar producing countries failed.

Countries that have confirmed participation in the May 23-27 meet include China, Australia, Japan, India, France, the US, Vietnam, Mauritius and Myanmar.