LAST year was a challenging one for the Fiji Sugar Corporation, says CEO Bhan Pratap Singh.
Mr Singh said the total cane harvested from the three mills was significantly reduced to 1.5 million tonnes.
From this, he said they were only able to make about 140,000 tonnes of sugar.
“The price of sugar last year was quite favourable, but we were not able to capitalise and get the maximum benefit out of the good price,” he said.
Mr Singh said despite the low production, the total cane price paid for the season was over $100 per tonne, the highest cane price ever paid.
“With the decline in tonnes of cane a concern, another area is also the decline in the quality of cane in terms of sugar content.”
Mr Singh said cane quality was impacted by cane burning.
“We see now this is a trend.
“We need to be aware that sugar buyers now demand quality sugar, and we need to focus on improving many aspects of the cane and factory performance.”
Mr Singh said Labasa Mill had an objective this season to produce more than 56,000 tonnes of sugar from an expected crop of 600,000 tonnes of cane over the next 19 weeks.
He said the factory had invested in improving plant and operational efficiencies, environmental, housekeeping and employee safety.
