The Sugar Cane Growers Council says around 200 gangs are harvesting sugarcane in the Northern Division as crushing has started at the Labasa Sugar Mill.
There are around 540 gangs in Labasa.
A senior official at the Sugar Cane Growers Council office in Labasa says 200 rail trucks are inside the Labasa Sugar Mill yard while around 50 trucks are waiting in the queue.
The official highlighted that other cane cutting gangs are currently looking for labourers and they may start harvesting in the next few days.
He says some farmers have told them that they may not harvest cane during the weekend as they will be going to watch the Vodafone Fiji Fact at Subrail Park.
The official also highlighted that they have also not heard about cane growers demanding an additional $10 a tonne cane payment to begin harvesting for the 2016 season.
This has been claimed by the National Farmers Union General Secretary Mahendra Chaudhry who said that about 500 growers have told the union that they did not have the funds to commence harvesting from yesterday because of the low 4th cane payment of $11.12 a tonne.
When questioned by Fijivillage on whether this is a harvest boycott, Chaudhry said that this is not the case.
He says the consistency in crushing in Labasa will be affected.
Chaudhry claims that less than 30 percent of the farmers in Labasa have sent in their Memorandum of Gang Agreements, and harvesting is just a trickle at the moment with only 20 trucks and 35 rail trucks that delivered cane after two days of harvesting.
