THERE will always be a certain amount of standover cane every year because it is practically impossible to harvest and deliver all the cane to the mill, says Fiji Sugar Corporation executive chairman Abdul Khan.
While standover cane was not really an issue in the north, he said keeping the mill operational until December was impractical because cane supply was insufficient this year.
Mr Khan's comment follow complaints raised by some farmers about the early end to the season, calling on FSC to keep its mills open until December to avoid standover cane.
"The amount of sugarcane crushed at the mill was more than 410,000 tonnes, which produced about 44,000 tonnes of raw sugar," Mr Khan said.
"The mill completed its cane crushing season early because all the available sugarcane had been processed," he said.
"This year, we had real problems in terms of consistent supply of cane to the mill, leading to stops and starts."
Mr Khan said the industry liason officer and the mill production manager actually visited the sites to ensure that all available cane was brought to the mill.
"FSC and the other stakeholders of the industry feel that the good performance by all parties have seen the significant improvement across the board and this is a very good reason to celebrate," said Mr Khan.