Rain halts sugar production

Heavy and persistent rain has brought the sugar crushing season in the Mackay Whitsunday region to a standstill.

Mackay Sugar ordered all harvesters to stop work yesterday morning with final processing completed at the Farleigh mill late in the afternoon.

The Plane Creek Mill at Sarina and the Proserpine mill have also stopped.

Mackay Sugar supply manager Dave Langham says crushing will not resume until the end of the week, but that it is not a major disruption.

"It interrupts our planned crush, but I think the benefits that we'll get from the rain will far outweigh the disadvantages of pulling up crushing for a couple of days," he said.

- ABC

© ABC 2008

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