Contestants Told Labasa Mill Hopes to Crush 800,000 Tonnes Of Cane
Fiji Sugar Corporation Labasa field manager Amrika Prasad told the contestants of the Vodafone Festival of the Friendly North that they are expecting to crush 800,000 tonnes of cane this year.
During their tour of the Labasa Mill yesterday, Mr Prasad told the 11 queens and five king contestants that last year they had received 650,000 tonnes of cane.
“The mill is ready to receive 40,000 tonnes of cane on a weekly basis which is like 6000 tonnes of cane everyday,” Mr Prasad said. “Our expectation for the next few years is to receive one million tonnes of cane then we are on full potential and sustainable.” There is only one sugar mill in Vanua Levu.
There are about 4000 growers from Seaqaqa to Nubu.
“Currently, Labasa mill is performing very well,” he said. “The two modes of cane delivery to the mill now are rail and lorry. “The recent harvesting mode is mechanical harvested cane and we have about ten to 12 machines operating in the farms. We are expecting to increase the number of machines this year. “Mechanical harvesting contributes 19 percent of cane delivered to the mill now.
“This is a new development for the mill.
“Our future plan is to increase our yield at the grower basis and bring about more large scale farming,” he said.
“FSC has one farm in Seaqaqa. “We have joint venture farms with landowners and mataqali and have established one in Nagigi which is doing very well.
“We are looking for more joint ventures in order to increase yield production.
“We have done two shipments of sugar for this 2017 crushing season and hoping to ship more.
“The Tonnes of Cane to Tonnes of Sugar (TCTS) is around 9.3 at the moment and we are hoping to bring it down.”
During the crushing season Mr Prasad revealed that there are about 500 to 600 Fiji Sugar Corporation employees working in different departments. Meanwhile, FSC Labasa mill assistant safety officer Jaswant So’otaga while making his presentation on safety prior to the contestants’ tour said the mill over the years has maintained a good safety record.