Mackay Sugar mills have closed for another sugar cane crushing season with the final bin being tipped at Marian Mill at around 2.00am on 25 December 2023, following Racecourse and Farleigh Mills that crushed out on Friday 22 December.
“Our people have worked tirelessly throughout the season to see more than 99% of the total crop harvested and processed and I know our workforce, along with growers and contractors, are glad to finish the crushing season,” said Carl Morton, Mackay Sugar General Manager Operations.
“It is never good when cane is left in the paddocks at the end of the season and ideally, everyone would have liked to see a consistent supply of quality cane that meant the mills could remain operational until the entire crop was harvested,” said Mr Morton.
Mackay Sugar made the difficult decision to stop crushing for the season due to declining harvest allocations in the week leading up to Christmas, and more than 70% of harvesting contractors had declared by Friday 22 December that they had finished work for the year, with others finding paddocks inaccessible due to recent wet weather.
Whilst official numbers won’t be available until next week, Mackay Sugar’s initial season summary reports a total 5.15 million tonnes of cane was crushed over the 30-week period with an expected production of more than 684,000 tonnes of raw sugar. Mackay Sugar also generated approximately 181,440 MWh of renewable electricity throughout the crushing season across its three mills, with some 86,677 MWh of that being exported into the national grid and supplying local Mackay households.
“To ensure we can get a good start to the next season we are already working on critical path jobs, including an extensive list of capital improvement projects that we have already started to implement,” said Mr Morton.
“One of the major projects we’re excited to deliver this year is the replacement of the entire high grade fugal stage at Marian, which kicked off several weeks ago with the demolition of redundant equipment in preparation for further cleaning and removals scheduled to take place this week” he said.
“In addition, we are well prepared for key maintenance tasks and have large amounts of materials already in our stores to ensure we have a seamless transition into our maintenance season,” explained Mr Morton.
The final bins were tipped on December 22nd at Racecourse Mill. Photos supplied: Mackay Sugar
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