It is political status quo for Fiji for next three years

[posted 1 July 2009, 1600]

Fiji’s political landscape will remain unchanged for the next three years at least - this was made clear in the Interim Prime Minister’s address to the nation today.

It is political status quo for Fiji for next three years
[posted 1 July 2009, 1600]
Fiji’s political landscape will remain unchanged for the next three years at least - this was made clear in the Interim Prime Minister’s address to the nation today.

 

 

 

FSC secretive with mill performance figures

[posted 3 July 2009,1400]

The Fiji Sugar Corporation is not releasing weekly crush figures to industry stakeholders obviously in a bid to hide the truth regarding the pathetic condition of its mills.

The Corporation normally provides a weekly report on how much cane has been crushed at each mill and tonnes of sugar produced.

National Farmers Union is concerned that these figures are no longer being made available to the growers, not even to the Sugar Cane Growers Council.

“What is the reason for this secrecy? What are they trying to hide?” asked NFU general secretary Mahendra Chaudhry.

“Growers have a 70% stake in the industry and have a right to know how each of the mills is performing,” Mr Chaudhry said.

Figures leaked out to NFU show that to date all mills have grossly under-performed.

As at 3pm, 29 June 2009, the Lautoka Mill had crushed only 13,000 tonnes of cane in the two weeks since it began rolling. The mill should be crushing 40,000 tonnes in a week.

In three weeks, the Labasa Mill has crushed 47,146 tonnes whereas it should crushed over 120,000 tonnes by now. Penang which began crushing on 25th May has crushed 41,196 tonnes.

Total cane crushed to 29 June at the three mills is 101,249 tonnes.

We are now reliably informed that the Rarawai Mill which was due to begin crush today (Friday 3 July), is mechanically not ready to start. The mill’s unpreparedness has been confirmed by independent assessors.

But FSC will still go through the farce of tipping in cane at the mill today to officially kick it off. Limited harvest quotas have been issued to ensure just enough cane is available to kick off the mill. It will then stop crushing.

“This is how cane farmers and other industry stakeholders are being hoodwinked by FSC. The Master Award requires FSC to go to the Sugar Industry Tribunal seven days ahead to get a deferment. It has not done this simply because this would have been the third deferment at the Ba mill, and would have been quite embarrassing for the Corporation,” Mr Chaudhry said.