MORE than 1.3million tonnes of cane had been crushed by the Fiji Sugar Corporation.
This was confirmed today by FSC in a statement advising the public that FSC that as of 8am today November 2, 2018 a total of 1,319,484 tonnes of cane had been crushed.
The statement further clarified that the Labasa Mill had crushed 523,379 tonnes, Lautoka Mill 464,507 tonnes and Rarawai Mill 331,598 tonnes for the season to date.
FSC CEO Graham Clark said “for Viti Levu we will combine Lautoka and Rarawai mill capacity to enable a minimum total of 7,500 tonnes to be crushed per day.
“The diversion of cane from Rarawai to Lautoka continues successfully and makes this achievable. The Labasa Mill is well placed, assuming current performance continues, to end crushing on time,” Mr Clark said.
In order to monitor remaining cane and to ensure it is crushed, a detailed tracking system to monitor daily harvesting in each sector has been used by FSC to determine the available cane remaining to be harvested.
This indicates that the following cane remains to be crushed; Labasa Mill 124,421 tonnes, Lautoka Mill 91,638 tonnes and Rarawai Mill 170,552 tonnes.
In total, 386,611 tonnes remains to be harvested from 2nd November 2018.
As previously announced by the Sugar Industry Tribunal, FSC plans to crush all cane by mid December 2018, with a total of 35 crushing days remaining, excluding public holidays.
This would require each mill to crush the following minimum tonnage per day – Labasa Mill 3,500 tonnes per day, Lautoka Mill 4,500 tonnes per day and Rarawai 3,000 tonnes per day.
The targeted minimum daily crush is 11,000 tonnes per day.
The FSC mills have all achieved better than this in the current season.
Throughput will thus depend on cane deliveries to the mills.
