As Tropical Cyclone Jasper spins closer to the North Queensland coast, Mackay cane mills are ramping up operations to get their crush over the line before it makes landfall.
As of December 7, Mackay Sugar had crushed 91 per cent of its estimated 5.24Mt crop, with up to 400,000 tonnes still remaining.
"Our crews continue to work 24/7, as they have done all season, and our factories will keep producing sugar for as long as there is sufficient cane supply and no weather impacts," a Mackay Sugar spokesperson said.
"Our annual cyclone preparedness activities commenced several weeks ago.
"We are now closely monitoring the official Bureau of Meteorology tracking maps for Tropical Cyclone Jasper and will implement additional measures when and if necessary."
On average, 200,000 tonnes are crushed per week, and with 300-400,000 tonnes left, harvesters will be working up to the last week before Christmas to get it off.
"We aim to get the whole crop off every year, and will continue to crush as long as there is sufficient cane supply to operate the mills (wet weather can impact growers ability to access their paddocks for harvesting)," the spokesperson said.
Wilmar's mills are tracking along, with the Burdekin and Herbert regions crushed out for the season.
Plane Creek is still working to finalise the season, with 1.18m tonnes processed and 16 per cent left to go.
Proserpine was scheduled to crush out by Friday.
Grower Brendan Smith, who has a cane property 15km north of Proserpine, said the mill was expected to finalise crushing by 6pm December 8.
"(Cyclone Jasper) is not going to impact crushing in any way," he said.
"We've probably been lucky for the last two to three years, in terms of our wet. This is the first really dry middle of the year, from April onwards.
"October was hot, dry and windy, and it really dried out the countryside, but we were pretty lucky probably three weeks ago when we got 2.5 inches of rain, but not widespread.
"There are still big parts of the district south of us that can't irrigate because of water bans on the river systems they irrigate from. They've had it challenging. We're on a scheme where the water is permanent which makes it a bit easier."
