THE loss incurred by sugar millers during the January floods accounted for 31 per cent of the total losses in the sugar belt, or approximately $7.5m. This included the Fiji Sugar Corporation's loss due to the drop in cane output, tramline damage, and damage to the mills.
The miller's share of the loss in cane output was estimated at $3.4m. Added to this was $1.57m for tramline maintenance.
According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) report on the costs of this year's flood to the sugar industry, only Rarawai Mill was directly affected by the floods to an estimated cost of $2.43 million.
The report stated FSC suffered three types of economic losses which were the loss in the miller's share of industry revenue due to a decline on the cane output and associated loss in industry revenue; direct cost of damage to the mills and the additional costs to the maintenance of the tramline infrastructure, which is the sole responsibility of the miller.
Under the Master Award, the miller received 30 per cent of the industry's revenue net of costs. Based on the growers' cane price of $61.17 per tonne projected by FSC, the report said the miller's share of the industry net revenue would be $26.22 per tonne.
"This results in an equivalent miller's loss in gross revenue of about $3.4m. Only Rarawai Mill was directly affected by the floods. The damage to the Rarawai Mill was estimated by the FSC engineers to be $2.43m," it said.
Costs of extra maintenance of the tramlines due to the floods were estimated at $1.57m which gave the miller total costs of $7.5m for the 2009 floods.