Final figures released on cane crushing this season re-enforces the serious concerns being raised by stakeholders about the poor performance of the sugar industry.

Statistics issued by the Fiji Sugar Corporation revealed that the total cane crushed this season dropped to 2.321 million tonnes compared to 2.479 million, while burnt cane increased to 50% compared to 32% last year.

This saw a decline in sugar production as two mills in Labasa and Ba did not perform as expected.

FSC had raised concerns about receiving burnt cane saying this problem needs to be addressed in the interest of protecting the environment and assisting milling operations.

However, the Corporation said that reduction was seen in stand over cane at the end of crushing season with only 37,925 tonnes remaining in the fields.

Crushing season now starts at all the four mills by June next year.