Farmers in doubt after mill fire

Wilmar Sugar Australia says it is assessing damage caused by a fire at a key North Queensland mill and whether or not it will impact the sugarcane harvest season.

In a statement to farmers on Thursday, Wilmar regional operations manager for Burdekin Paul Turnbull confirmed the fire at its Inkerman Mill in Home Hill at 4.13pm.

Mr Turnbull said no employees had been injured.

“Our focus is on assessing the damage and determining a repair plan,” he said.

“We will start production on Inkerman Mill’s A side on Wednesday, June 7.”

The statement appeared to suggest the fire was on the dual-milling-train factory’s B side, Mr Turnbull saying Wilmar would bring it online “as soon as possible”.

It had been expected to start operations on June 7.

A Wilmar spokeswoman was unable to provide details of the fire, the damage caused and if the crush would be affected.

She said an update would be provided to growers late on Thursday.

Queensland Fire and Emergency Service said four fire crews were on the scene of the fire from 4.20pm to 5.40pm.

Canegrowers, the peak sugarcane industry body that has in the past been critical of the performance of selected Wilmar mills, has been contacted for comment.

Inkerman was to hold the first of two “pre-season factory steam trials” on Tuesday.

According to Wilmar, Inkerman crushes an average of 1.7 million tonnes of sugarcane a year, producing about 260,000 tons of raw sugar.

Sugarcane farming supports about $1.1bn in economic activity each year, provides more than 9800 direct jobs and $379m in wages and incomes, and underpins a value chain of $4bn in economic activity annually.