Fears half of state’s cane affected

THERE are fears the heart of Australia’s $ 2 billion sugar industry may have been ripped out by Cyclone Debbie.

Debbie hit the middle of Queensland canegrowing country in the Whitsundays, Mackay and Burdekin regions yesterday with winds up to 250km/ h flattening crops.

State MP for Whitsunday Jason Costigan toured his electorate on Monday and even then was concerned with how much cane was affected.

“I saw late yesterday paddock after paddock of cane folds flattened by Debbie, who at that stage hadn’t yet unleashed her full fury on our region,” Mr Costigan said.

It’s hoped the sugar industry won’t suffer the same fate as the banana industry following 2006’ s Cyclone Larry, which destroyed banana crops around Innisfail and Tully worth up to $ 350 million, causing a national shortage.

About half of Queensland’s sugarcane crop and more than 1150 cane farming families were in the path of Cyclone Debbie, which brings a double- edged sword with flooding likely.

Mr Costigan said the region was the heart of Australia’s sugar industry and called on Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to visit the area to see the situation first hand.

Canegrowers chief executive Dan Galligan said a lot of the crop had been flattened but farmers were yet to determine if they were snapped.

“It will take another 48 hours to see if it’s retrievable,” he said. Mr Galligan said the Burdekin, Proserpine and Mackay regions harvested about 17.5 million tonnes of cane last year, half of the Queensland crop.