A total of 544,524 tonnes of cane has been crushed by the three sugar mills as of yesterday.

A total of 544,524 tonnes of cane has been crushed by the three sugar mills as of yesterday.

The Fiji Sugar Corporation says this is an increase in cumulative crush compared to 4655,015 tonnes for the same period last year.

Nationally, mill performance remains good, with operating time efficiency 14 percent higher than last year and average weekly mill stoppages 45 percent lower.

Sugar production of 46,189 tonnes to date is five prevent above the equivalent period in 2019.

Sugar recoveries are improving, with tonnes cane to sugar ratio improving to 11.8 to date.

Preparations are in hand to load the next two bulk sugar cargos – 11,500 tonnes to the USA and 30,000 tonnes to Spain.

These two vessels are expected in the coming week and will load in rotation from the Malau and Lautoka terminals.

Lautoka Mill crushed a total of 31,602 tonnes cane for the week while Rarawai Mill crushed a total of 31,496 tonnes.

Labasa Mill crushed 29,100 tonnes of cane for the week which was lower than the mill target figure and also lower than last weeks’ cane throughput.

After a scheduled stop on Sunday, a heavy downpour across all the cane districts delayed mill start-up, resulting in 45hrs of downtime.

Throughput was also affected in mid-week due to issues on the No.2 mill intermediate carrier and No.1 mill drive chains.

The factory took a scheduled stop to address these issues and put the mills back into full operation.