12 September 2013

Australia’s 24 sugar mills are overall well advanced in the processing of this year’s 30.5 million tonnes sugarcane crop. More than 60% of the available crop will have been crushed by the end of the current week.

For the past seven weeks, reflecting ideal harvesting conditions and good milling performance, around 1.5 million tonnes of sugarcane per week have been processed into raw sugar.

The current crop outlook stands at 30.598 million tonnes up slightly on the forecast at the start of the season in June. The movement in forecast is an outcome of an increase of about 400,000 tonnes in the Far North of Queensland tempered by reductions in estimate in the Herbert-Burdekin and Southern regions of the State. The New South Wales crop has remained steady at around 1.4 million tonnes.

Sugar content continues to trend upwards and at an industry average CCS of 13.58 is in line with the long term average for Australia.

Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Sugar Milling Council Dominic Nolan says that while the dry conditions have been ideal for the crush progress, some rain would now be welcome in most regions.

“The early part of the crush was disrupted in many areas by unseasonal winter rain but the second half of July and all of August has been extremely dry and plant and ratoon crops for 2014 are starting to stress in non-irrigated areas,” Mr Nolan said.

“The variation in weather conditions across the State means that in regions where dry conditions have prevailed for all of the crush, processing could be completed as early as mid to late October. In the far North of the State where the crop has continued to grow, through what has been a mild winter, the crush is likely to extend into December.”

Further information: Dominic Nolan (ASMC CEO) 07 3231 5000