7 February 2024

Mackay Sugar: End of the crushing season in Australia at Christmas – total yield on average

Despite persistent rainfall, more than 99 per cent of the total volume of sugar cane was harvested and processed at the three Australian mills Racecourse, Farleigh and Marian by the end of December. Nordzucker subsidiary Mackay Sugar processed around 5,15 million tonnes of sugar cane in the past season. This volume led to slightly lower sugar production than in the previous year, which is also due to the challenging weather conditions in 2023.

In addition to sugar, the supply of electricity generated from bagasse, a by-product of sugar production, is an important business segment for the Australian sites.  Almost half of the electricity generated in the sugar mills during the season was fed into the public grid and covers a large part of the electricity requirements of the city of Mackay with its 80,000 inhabitants.