Wilmar Sugar focused on harvesting all sugarcane during harvest crush

Australia’s largest manufacturer and exporter of raw sugar says it is focused on ensuring all available sugarcane is harvested before the end of the crushing season.

Wilmar Sugar and Renewables Invicta Mill in the Burdekin. Picture: Supplied

Australia’s largest manufacturer and exporter of raw sugar says it is focused on ensuring all available sugarcane is harvested before the end of the crushing season.

Wilmar Sugar and Renewables confirmed on Sunday that 56 per cent of the sugarcane across its milling regions had been harvested.

“As at Sunday morning, we’d processed a total of 8.7 million tonnes of cane across our eight mills, representing 56 per cent of the total estimated crop,” said Ian Davies, general manager cane supply and grower relations.

“Our latest crop review puts the total estimated crop at 15.54 million tonnes.”

Despite the protracted industrial action and poor weather earlier in the crush, Mr Davies said fine weather had “enabled us to make good headway in recent weeks, and we’ve achieved good weekly throughputs”.

Wilmar Sugar and Renewables Invicta Mill in the Burdekin. Picture: Supplied

The multinational sugar giant’s eight Australian mills are located across primarily North Queensland.

Mr Davies said its four mills in the Burdekin had processed 4.8 million tonnes or 58 per cent of the total estimated crop, while its two Herbert (Hinchinbrook) mills had processed 2.2 million tonnes or 54 per cent of the total.

Wilmar Sugar and Renewables general manager cane supply and grower relation Ian Davies puts the total sugarcane crop at 15.54 million tonnes. Picture: Supplied

He said it was too early to talk about standover (unharvested) cane projections for Burdekin and the Herbert.

“We’re committed to getting all of the cane through our mills,” he said.

“We currently expect to crush out in both regions in December.”

Mr Davies said the crush deadline had factored in additional “downtime for rain”, which bogs sugarcane fields and impedes harvesting.

“We’ll have a better idea of finish dates next month when we’ve done another crop review and know more about weather patterns.”

Originally published as Wilmar Sugar focused on harvesting all sugarcane during harvest crush