Cane harvest tipped to be down

Canegrowers says this year's harvest is expected to be down on last year's, but conditions are right for a good crop next year. The chief executive officer of Canegrowers, Ian Ballantyne, says mills are expected to process about 8 per cent less cane than expected. But Mr Ballantyne says the crop's sugar content is high, so the overall fall in sugar production will only be about 2 to 3 per cent. "On balance it's been a reasonable crop. We would hope to be able to finish this year nice and early so that we don't get those late year rain interruptions and if that's the case we would hope that 2009 and 2010 would both be very productive years," he said. Meanwhile, Canegrowers says... [read full story]