CRUSHING at the four sugar mills in the country has been tentatively scheduled to begin in early June.
This was the word from the Fiji Sugar Corporation executive chairman, Abdul Khan.
Mr Khan said repairs and rehabilitation works were proceeding on schedule and the actual date for start-of-crush would be determined once assessments on rain and flood damage to crops were completed next week.
"We are looking at early June for crushing this season but, obviously, this may change depending on the outcome of the wet weather damage assessments," he said.
"Although repair works are progressing well, the only mill that could possibly have any issues would be Rarawai in Ba because of flood damage, if any.
"However, if we can rule this out and, obviously, barring any further natural disasters, crushing is expected to begin early June."
He said the FSC was looking at crushing close to two million tonnes of sugar cane this season.
"Hopefully the weather clears up soon and fingers crossed we don't get another bout of wet weather over the next few months.
"We are looking at close to two million tonnes or somewhere around the 1.9 million mark in total for this season," he said.