The Lautoka Sugar Mill. The Fiji Sugar Corporation is reporting an increase in cane supply to the mills as crushing enters its first month.
Source: MINISTRY OF INFORMATION
The Fiji Sugar Corporation (FSC) is urging farmers to continue the momentum of cane supply to mills around the country as the crushing season enters its second month of crushing.
FSC executive chairman Abdul Khan says so far the four mills have crushed 275,000 tonnes of cane and produced in excess of 26,200 tonnes of raw sugar in the first month of crushing.
“The mills are going well and we have picked up crushing especially after a few niggling breaks but we are hopeful of meeting our targets,” he said.
“However, I still would like to urge farmers to continue supplying cane to the mills on a timely basis so that there is no more standing cane at the end of the crushing season.”
He added that the cane to sugar ratio had also improved compared to last year.
“The Tonne Cane to Tonne Sugar (TCTS) ratio has also improved to 10:1 which means a slight improvement and we will continue to find ways of improving this to bring it even lower to around 7.5 or eight,” Mr Khan said.
Meanwhile, he clarified the issue regarding the pay rise for workers in the industry.
“The pay rise has been discussed with the workers for some time and we had told them of the review that was currently being made. What the politicians and the unions are doing is trying to twist it to show that the rise was because of them,” he added.
“The workers knew that a pay rise was on its way and the rise had nothing to do with the unions.”