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As you heard from the PM last night, the sugar industry is currently being bedevilled by poor quality cane being delivered with high volumes of mud.
Speaking via Zoom, the Vice president for International Relations at ASR BSI says that the mud isn't the only challenge they've been facing in terms of production and quality:
Mac McLachlan, VP, International Relations, ASR BSI
"We have been dealing with a lot of of that sub quality cane at the moment obviously it has rained we've seen some of the highest mud levels we've ever had coming into the factory that always slows the factory and it increases or decreases the quality of the cane you receiving which has a direct impact on the amount of sugar you make of course we pay farmers on the basis of The sugar and the cane and then finally we have had the Fusarium disease which also has had a bit of an impact but I am assured from some of our experts who have been out in the field that there is quality cane out there. They have been doing cane testing at the moment we are a good 2 points below where we should be really on the purity of our cane coming in which is not good and that affects the TCS the tons of cane it takes to produce a ton of sugar and it affects the amount of sugar that can be made and as it stands we don't have enough cane for this mill it has been a perennial problem in recent years which means that the mill is looking at significant losses this year unsustainable losses and what really, I would encourage the farmers is that we have seen actually the purity is improving so thank you to the farmers for really trying to help, this is definitely and industry issue, its one we have to work together and try to bring us clean and fresh cane as possible please don't over burn especially when we know it's going to rain because we can anticipate the mill running a bit slower when it gets more mud coming in. Please ensure that you are only burning and cutting what you need to bring in for that next round and let's try and, as I say, be encouraged by an improvement in the polls in recent days. We are managing the situation with all this very poor quality cane the best way we can And I am very proud of our mill for doing that they are really working."