8 February 2022

Mackay Sugar: Second best harvest in the last ten years

After a busy season, Mackay Sugar has completed the 2021 crush in Australia. More than 5.3 million tonnes of cane with an average CCS (Commercial Cane Sugar) of 13.7 per cent (comparable to sugar content minus yield loss for sugar beets) was processed.

Well-distributed rainfall also led to above-average yields in the region of the three sugar mills. Starting with sufficient rainfall after the harvest in the previous year, the rainfall in 2021 also favored the growth of the sugar cane and the second-best harvest in the last ten years was recorded.

The 2021 season in the three sugar mills with an average of 199 days was longer than expected due to a large crop, weather and operational interruptions that made the crush continue into late December instead of the targeted November finish. Despite the difficulties of the season however, the employees at Mackay Sugar successfully saw almost all the expected crop crushed for the season, with less than 0.4% not being harvested due to excessively wet soils.