Rain leads to delay in crushing
North Queensland's temperamental rainfall has caused some delays in the 2018 crushing season.
So far this year, 1.46 million tonnes have been crushed across Wilmar Sugar's eight mills, equivalent to approximately 9 per cent of the estimated total crop.
Wilmar's general manager of cane supply and grower relations Paul Giordani said rain in the Herbert and Burdekin regions caused harvesting operation delays.
"We use the time when our mills are without cane supply to conduct maintenance and cleaning, to ensure the factories are ready to resume crushing once field conditions improve," he said.
Mr Giordani said commercial cane sugar levels have been encouraging with most regions either at or above budget.
Herbert mills Macknade and Victoria are producing CCS trends above budget on average per week, with crush rates improving despite showers impacting harvesting.
About 360,000 tonnes of cane is expected to be crushed across the Burdekin's four mills, Kalamia, Invicta, Pioneer and Inkerman this week.
