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SYDNEY, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Australia's sugar industry, the world's third-biggest exporter, appears to have escaped major damage from a cyclone that swept across main growing regions earlier on Friday.
So far there had been no reports of wide-scale damage to the cane growing regions in the path of the cyclone, though the full impact will not become clear until growers has been able to venture back into soggy fields, according to the sector's representative group Canegrowers.
High winds are believed to have flattened pockets of cane throughout the affected fields.
"As the day goes on, we expect to hear from individual farms reporting sections of flattened cane and isolated flooding, but for the cane growing regions on the whole, so far it looks like the sugarcane industry has weathered this storm fairly lightly," the group's chairman, Paul Schembri said.
At around 2200 GMT, tropical Cyclone Dylan, which packed winds up to 140 km per hour before touching land was downgraded to a tropical low as it started to run out of steam.
Any badly flattened cane is expected to grow sideways, resulting in a loss in productivity, though the extent will not be known until harvest which starts in July.
Some flattened cane has the potential to stand back up if the sun comes out, helping dry out the crop quickly, but issues can stem from the rain which follows a cyclone
The area in the path of the cyclone is a major cane-growing region, yielding about 16 million tonnes of sugarcane annually.
The national crop in 2014 is estimated to be 32 million tonnes.
(Reporting by James Regan; Editing by Ed Davies)
((jim.regan@thomsonreuters.com)(+612 9373-1814)(Reuters Messaging: jim.regan.reuters.com@reuters.net))
Keywords: AUSTRALIA SUGAR/CYCLONE