THE delivery of sugarcane to mills in the Western Division has been hampered by inaccessible cane access roads but the Sugar Cane Growers Council (SCGC) said the issue should be resolved by early next week.
Four days into crushing at the Lautoka and Penang mills has seen cane supply slowly gaining momentum.
SCGC acting chief executive officer Sundresh Chetty said this was the norm.
"In the first two weeks there is always the expected teething problems and this is what we are seeing here. Cane supply to Rakiraki has been better than Lautoka but we expect supply to improve over the next few days," he said.
Mr Chetty said the second quarter allocation for rehabilitating cane access roads had been released and work on the thoroughfares would be completed shortly.
"We are once again urging growers to please ensure that good quality fresh green cane is consistently supplied to all mills," he said.
The Lautoka mill was recently rehabilitated at a cost of $6million and Penang factory in Rakiraki began crushing on Tuesday. Crushing at the FCS's other two mills at Labasa and Rarawai in Ba is scheduled for July 10.
The Fiji Sugar Corporation said the delays to the start-of-crush at all mills was because of low sugar content in standing crop brought about by prolonged wet weather spells and extensive flooding in the Western Division in January and March this year.
FSC executive chairman Abdul Khan said they hoped to produce approximately 180,000 tonnes of sugar this season.