CLARKS TOWN, Trelawny — The 2012/2013 sugar crop at the privately owned Long Pond Sugar Estate in Trelawny is expected to begin today with industry players hopeful that the harvest will be much better than last year's.

Last crop, the factory produced roughly 50 per cent of its pre-season target of 8,000 tonnes of sugar. This, after a one-year break to facilitate a $1-billion modernisation programme at the plant.

Chairman of the All-Island Cane Farmers Association, Alan Rickards said yesterday that during the upcoming crop, Long Pond is expected to produce roughly 7,000 tonnes of sugar from the milling of about 80,000 tonnes of cane.

The crop is expected to end early April.

"It's all set now. We have had our harvesting committee meetings and the reaping schedule is out, so the crop is ready to begin," said Rickards, who is also the chairman of the Trelawny/St James Cane Growers Association.

He noted, however, that sugar projection at the plant is expected to be significantly increased during the 2013/2014 based on a massive cane-planting programme that is currently under way in the parish.

"Between March and now, more than 850 acres of cane have been planted in the Long Pond area alone, under the Sugar Cane Expansion Programme," he noted.