Crushing starts at Lautoka Mill
Date not announced yetThe 2026 season opened at all three mills on Wednesday 1 July, with harvesting from Tuesday 30 June. For the next one the Tribunal’s order names the first crushing day at each mill and the day harvesting may begin, usually the day before; FSC can defer it, and says it will set revised dates once the required number of harvesting gangs in a mill’s area have confirmed they are ready.
The ordered date is not always the day the mill starts. The Tribunal had ordered 10 June 2026 for Lautoka, with harvesting from 9 June; FSC put the mill on hold before that date and then deferred Rarawai and Labasa until further notice, and the season began three weeks late.
Crushing starts at Lautoka Mill
Gang agreements (MOGA) for the next season
Date not announced yetNo filing date is published. A gang holds its MOGA meeting, settles who cuts and who carts, and lodges the form at its FSC sector office. FSC counts the forms to judge whether a mill area is ready and will not start a mill until enough are in, so the form has to be lodged before the ordered start date, not after it.
The Memorandum of Gang Agreement is the form that tells FSC a harvesting gang is ready to cut and deliver. By the 10 June 2026 start date about 4% of gangs in the Lautoka mill area had lodged one, against about 60% at the same point in 2025 — FSC chief operating officer Mikaele Biukoto, to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Economic Affairs, 13 June 2026.
Sign-ups reached about 16% in the Lautoka mill area, 10% at Rarawai and 25% at Labasa by 30 June, after a FJ$5 million government subsidy paying FJ$5 a tonne on mechanically harvested cane and FJ$3 a tonne on hand-cut cane — Sugar Cane Growers Council chief executive Vimal Dutt.
Gang agreements (MOGA) for the next season