THE world sugar price continues to sit just below last season's 30-year high but heavy rain means farmers cannot harvest their crops.
Babinda cane farmer John Nucifora looks at his paddocks in disbelief.
And now, instead of earning up to $500 a tonne for his cane, Mr Nucifora worries that up to 10,000 tonnes could be left in the paddock.
“What can you do,” he said.
“It’s part of life.
“We had a great season last year but this year it’s terrible. I have a great crop but I cannot get it to the mill and I’m going to lose a lot of money.”
Cairns has its warmest, wettest winter in a decade
Mr Nucifora said after a difficult decade, farmers had hoped the good times would have lasted longer than a year but the weather could lay waste to a second year of strong returns.
Canegrowers policy manager Bernard Milford said yesterday only one-third of the Far North Queensland crop had been crushed compared with 50 per cent at the same time last year.
He said the concern now was the wet would set in and the harvest would not be completed by mid-November.
“If the weather closes in in October or November and we are not able to get all the cane harvested, we will lose that cane and lose the access to the good prices,” he said.
Mr Milford said the rain and cloudy weather was also driving down sugar content.
Tully Sugar chairman Dick Camilleri said rain had also affected planting with many farmers not able to prepare paddocks.
Weather bureau duty forecaster Don McGuffie said yesterday cane growing areas had received higher than average rain in August and there was no relief in sight in the short-term.
