Fiji Sugar Corporation chairman Vishnu Mohan said the $31.7 million loss recorded by the corporation for the 2015 financial year was not as significant as it appeared to be.
“Part of the loss is the top-up cane payment of $17m, which the Government will make good on and an exchange variation of $7m, so the operating loss is not as big as you see in the profit and loss statement,” he said.
Mr Mohan was referring to a cane payment top-up of $9.39 paid out in May last year which boosted the fourth cane payment for the 2014 season.
“It does not mean that I am not disappointed.
“It is still a loss but I am optimistic that FSC can do much better by improving its gross sales and revenue.
“If that improves, then everything improves.
“We need to get the net operating income positive, at the moment it is negative and that is the reason for the dismal financial state of FSC.
“The bottom line is the business has to generate cash and you do that by focusing on improving its core business which is producing sugar.
“So once we improve our cane production, make our mills more efficient and manage labour and transport costs, the picture will improve.
“Unfortunately, this year we also suffered a setback because of Tropical Cyclone Winston.
“With the recent cane planting grants and other initiatives by the Government, we should start to see major improvements by 2018.”
Mr Mohan said globally, sugar was experiencing growth by more than 2 per cent and Fiji had the opportunity to take advantage of that growth trend.
