Update: 4:30PM THE Fiji Sugar Corporation (FSC) has announced a final sugarcane payment to all sugar cane farmers at $9.59 per tonne, bringing the total sugarcane payment for 2016 to $82.00 – a nearly 7 per cent increase over the total 2015 payment.

The final sugarcane payment will be paid out in two installments, with a $6.54 payment before Diwali on Tuesday October 17 and a $3.05 payment to be paid out in January 2018 prior to the commencement of the new school year.   

The final sugarcane payment of $9.59 is composed of a $0.44 wash-up payment and a $9.15 top-up from Government in recognition of the ongoing difficulties faced by sugarcane farmers attributed to the massive damage caused by Category 5 Cyclone Winston.

Prime Minister and Minister for Sugar Voreqe Bainimarama was quoted in a Government statement issued today saying the top-up to the final sugarcane payment was part of a larger program of assistance and reform to expand the critical role of the sugar cane industry in growing the Fijian economy.

Around 200,000 Fijians rely on the sugar industry.

More in tomorrow’s edition of The Fiji Times.