The Labasa Sugar Mill ended its 2018 crushing season last week, having crushed the highest volume of cane amongst the three Fiji Sugar Corporation mills.
Labasa crushed 620,000 tonnes of cane for the season.
FSC CEO Graham Clark says the use of mechanical harvesters in the Labasa cane supply areas has been very encouraging.
Clark revealed that in Labasa, farmers have already planted 1715 hectares of cane for the 2019 season and with the introduction of two new joint venture projects in the North, cane production for the next season is showing a lot of promise.
Meanwhile, Fiji’s largest sugar mill, the Lautoka Mill, had its highest crush volume of the last seven years.
The volume was over 610,000 tonnes of crushed cane which is a 34 percent increase compared to last year.
This increase has been attributed to the increased efforts of the growers in the area as well as the work being carried out by the Fiji Sugar Corporation’s field teams in the Lautoka sectors.
Another significant improvement for the Lautoka mill was the reduction in total stops for the season, including mill stoppages which are primarily driven by rain, delays in rail delivery and finally harvest delays. This represented an 80 percent improvement.
The Lautoka Mill officially closed last Sunday.
