CHEERS of joy were very much part of a march through Labasa Town yesterday marking the end of the cane crushing season.
Fiji Sugar Corporation executive chairman Abdul Khan and Tui Macuata Ratu Aisea Katonivere were joined by business people, students, inmates and mill workers in the celebrations holding up banners and cheering as they marched.
Different coloured helmets bobbed along the main street as police escorted the march to the mill from the Y-corner end of town.
In his address, Mr Khan referred to everybody present as stakeholders.
"The industry does not only involve the FSC but it involves everyone in the community as everybody is linked in one way or another to the sugar industry," said Mr Khan.
"In an earlier address I had referred to three strategies to operate the sugar industry and they are the quality of sugarcane, the processes in our mills must be efficient and lastly, every time when we process cane, the end products are converted into money to move the industry forward."
The Labasa mill officially closed operations earlier this year compared to past years after successfully producing 44,000 tonnes of sugar.
Labasa mill manager Christopher Karia confirmed that operations would close today and they would confirm the tonnes of sugarcane crushed tomorrow.