SEASON estimates for the 2020 sugarcane harvest in North Queensland are slightly up on last year as the region's mills gear up for the crush amid COVID-19 regulations.
Wilmar Sugar's eight mills are expected to crush 15.07 million tonnes of cane, up from last year's 14.8 million tonnes, with the Burdekin's Inkerman Mill the first to start crushing on June 2.
Kalamia, Pioneer and Invicta will start on June 9, the Herbert mills will start on June 16, Plane Creek on June 23 and Proserpine on June 30.
The Burdekin mills will crush 8.04 million tonnes, up from 7.91 million tonnes last year, and the Herbert mills will crush 4.16 million tonnes, up from 4.05 million tonnes in 2019.
Wilmar general manager regional operations Mike McLeod said the company was recruiting 550 seasonal workers with 270 of them to be based on the Burdekin and 160 in the Herbert region.
"We're recruiting people to work as tramline labourers, laboratory assistants, general mill workers, loco driver assistants, bagasse truck drivers, mill firepersons, weighbridge operators, juice analysts, control chemists and loco drivers," Mr McLeod said.
The company is also spending more than $160 million on capital and maintenance projects in their milling regions, with $74 million to be spent across the four Burdekin mills and $38 million on the two Herbert mills.
Mr McLeod said Wilmar had put good contingency plans in place to manage the COVID-19 threat.
This includes reprioritising projects to ensure the mill critical work was finished early and deferring several non-critical projects.
"We are manufacturing parts and components in-house for any we are unable to source because of the pandemic," Mr McLeod said.
"We have boosted our labour force hours earlier than we normally would. Our people are working extra shifts now, rather than later in the maintenance season to ensure we get the work done early."
Australian Sugar Milling Council director of government and industry affairs Jim Crane said production forecasts were slightly higher than last year, but it was hard to tell what global sugar prices would do.
"The effect of the coronavirus pandemic on sugar prices is difficult to predict, but with most of our raw sugar exported onto the highly competitive global market, we are watching developments closely," Mr Crane said. With hygiene and social distancing measures in place, the first of Queensland's 21 sugar mills is scheduled to start operations in late May.