As Mossman cane farmer Peter Verri stands in front of a section of about 50 per cent of his 2024 crop that did not end up being harvested this season, he is asked: “Will this be your last sugar harvest?”

“I’d imagine so,” he replies, with an obvious heavy heart.

A little earlier in the conversation he had said: “I’m third generation growing sugar cane here. I never thought I’d see this.”

Mr Verri had just finished explaining how it came to be that about half of his sugar cane crop was still in the ground - what the industry calls “standover” cane - which may, or may not, eventually make it to the mill depending on a range of economic and logistical factors.

After Mossman Mill was suddenly placed into voluntary administration two days before the AGM in late 2023, farmers had to quickly find a way to truck their harvests out of the area for milling, meaning some growers wound up having up to 85 per cent of the most recent crop harvested, while others had as little as 40 per cent.

“This is the first time I’ve seen the quantity of standover that we’re seeing for this district,” the 76-year-old said.

“For the Douglas Shire, and for our generation, I thought I’d never see this mill shut.”

Mr Verri’s sobering analysis came as a new report was released this week by industry group Queensland Cane Agriculture and Renewables estimating that more than 1.27 million tonnes of cane remains unharvested across Australia’s sugarcane regions, resulting in forecast losses to farmers of more than $83m.