11 February 2025

Mackay Sugar: crushing season in Australia ended in January – total yield on average

The crushing season in Australia is over. On 14 January, the Marian plant also ended its harvesting and processing of sugar cane.

Last week, the Mackay Sugar factory in Marian, Australia, ended the crushing season. Heavy rainfall and storms in the region had significantly affected the harvestability of the sugar cane. The Racecourse and Farleigh factories, which also belong to the Nordzucker subsidiary Mackay Sugar, had already ended the harvest and processing of the sugar cane for these reasons before Christmas.

Besides cane sugar production, the Mackay Sugar factories also specialisespecialize in generating electricity from the waste material left over from sugar cane processing, known as bagasse. More than half of the electricity generated in the sites during the season was fed into the public grid, covering a large part of the electricity needs of the city of Mackay and its population of around 80,000.

In Australia, too, the processing season is followed by the pre-season: and the Australian factories are now starting the planned intensive maintenance and improvement measures.