THE 2017 Australian sugarcane crush is officially underway with the Tableland mill, west of Cairns starting crushing operations this morning.
Other mills across Queensland will also start crushing from next week through until the end of June, with operations continuing through until about the end of November.
The Australian Sugar Milling Council says that starting estimates for 2017 have now been finalised with a crop of just under 34 million tonnes in prospect for Australia.
The Australian Sugar Milling Council said this years’ estimated crop was down by just over 2mt on the 2016 crush. This comes on the back of drought in the southern region, particularly in the Maryborough mill area and the impact on the sugarcane crop of Cyclone Debbie in the central region.
Queensland’s far northern region was again expected to produce a crop in excess of 7mt, maintaining the run of almost perfect growing seasons.
Another crop of more than 13mt is set to be harvested in the Herbert–Burdekin region this year with starting estimates of 8.4mt for the Burdekin and 4.7mt for the Herbert.
The central region from Proserpine to Sarina has a starting forecast of 7.85mt with the crop in the douthern region expected to fall just below 4mt. Early indications from the NSW industry was that its crop would be down slightly, to just below 2mt.
ASMC chief executive officer Dominic Nolan said more than 3000 additional jobs were created each crushing season, bringing total direct employment in the industry to more than 15,000 during the season.
“This is a timely and annual boost to the economies in regions from Mossman in the north to Grafton in the south from an industry that has been operating for more than 100 years,” Mr Nolan said.
“Overall, the industry generates more than $1.5 billion in raw sugar export earnings each year with a further $500m in domestic revenue.”
