U.S. Sugar Completes Sugarcane Harvesting and Processing Season

Weather-Related Impacts Produce Smaller Than Expected Crop

CLEWISTON, Fla., April 6 /PRNewswire/ — U.S. Sugar Corporation completed its annual sugarcane harvest operations today and the Clewiston Sugar Factory expects to grind out the last cane on Tuesday, bringing to a close the second season of its automated, consolidated sugar manufacturing facility.

The Company harvested 162,725 acres of sugarcane, producing an estimated 5.65 million tons of cane. The Clewiston Refinery, which continues to operate year-round, will produce an estimated 12.35 million cwt. of refined sugar products.

“We have successfully harvested and ground our whole cane crop a little earlier than we anticipated, and the mill operated very well this year,” said Robert Coker, senior vice president, public affairs.

Coker said that like the rest of the Florida industry, U.S. Sugar’s cane crop was almost 700,000 tons smaller than expected due to the combined effects of drought, freeze and lack of irrigation water. The company’s citrus crop is similarly tracking under estimate by the same percentage for the same reasons.

“With the Clewiston Refinery continuing to break production records, we intend to import sugar to feed the Refinery for the second consecutive year,” Coker said.

“That’s the advantage of our modern, automated and fully-integrated sugar operation,” Coker said. “The low cost efficiency of our sugar manufacturing operations enables us to import raw sugar and refine it at a profit,” Coker said.

Due to the Refinery’s record pace last year, U.S. Sugar became the only Florida sugar processing facility to import sugar when it imported 46,000 tons of “estandar” sugar from Mexico to refine and sell.

SOURCE U.S. Sugar Corporation