Crushing on par despite rain

A TOTAL of 841,000 tonnes of cane has been crushed and 81,561 tonnes of sugar produced so far this season.

Despite the rainy weather in Labasa last week, the Fiji Sugar Corporation yesterday confirmed that its team performed well.

“The Labasa mill has boasted yet another strong performance for the week and at Week 13, Labasa has crushed 345,407 tonnes of cane, resulting in 35,441 tonnes of sugar being made,” FSC said.

“Labasa, with a TCTS of 9.5 was not spared the heavy rains of last week and recorded a total rainfall of 481.9mm.

“Despite this, Labasa mill satisfactorily crushed 24,093 tonnes of cane last week. The three days in the week, daily crush at Labasa went over 5000 tonnes.

“Outside stops (beyond mill boundary) stood at only 61.7 hours, largely as a result of the heavy rains, while inside stops (within mill) were 6.4 hours.”

For Lautoka, the mill has crushed 312,361 tonnes of cane and produced 29,117 tonnes of sugar.

“Crushing this week was impacted by heavy rains with rainfall at a total of 813.9mm for the week,” FSC said.

“The mill used this opportunity to conduct maintenance and a general clean-up of the mill.

“Last week, Lautoka produced 2584 tonnes of sugar with the TCTS at 10.2. Rains affected the cane quality and the sugar recoveries.”

Cane crushed at Rarawai now stands at a total of 183,232 tonnes of cane, completing the ninth week into the season.

“Two days within the week, the Ba mill’s daily crush exceeded 5000 tonnes. This contributed to Rarawai crushing 21,966 tonnes of cane and correspondingly producing 2038 tonnes of sugar, for the week,” FSC said.

“The TCTS stood at 10.8 and the Rarawai mill was affected the most by the heavy rain experienced last week, recording a total of 1123.40 mm.

“The Penang area also recorded 238 mm of rain on the same days. Harvesting and crushing efforts were affected by the rains. Outside stops registered 43.2 hours, largely because of heavy rains.”