Queensland sugar miller aims to reopen next week following cyber attack

Mackay Sugar operates three mills at Farleigh, Racecourse and Habana. (Supplied)

Mackay Sugar says it anticipates a staged resumption of crushing at its three mills next week.

The company is operating Farleigh Mill manually to crush cane harvested before the cyber attack to prevent it from spoiling.

Mackay Sugar says it is working with specialist cybersecurity investigators.

A north Queensland sugar miller crippled by a cybersecurity attack says it hopes to resume production next week.

Mackay Sugar shut down two of its three mills at Farleigh and Racecourse early Wednesday morning after finding operating systems had been compromised.

The company said it was progressively restoring critical systems and anticipated a staged resumption of harvesting and crushing operations from next week.

"Specialist cyber security experts continue to work alongside our teams and relevant authorities to investigate the incident and restore systems safely," the statement said.

A cane locomotive with loaded bins heading to Marian Mill. (Supplied)

The company said it had reported the incident to authorities.

"We recognise the impact this incident is having on our growers, and we are doing everything we can to support them and to safely resume full operations as soon as possible."

Mackay Sugar said it had recommenced limited manual crushing at the Farleigh Mill to process cane harvested before the cyber attack.

Sugar cane must be processed within a set period after being harvested to avoid the loss of sugar content.

"While some operations have resumed in a controlled manner, key cane supply and logistics systems remain subject to ongoing restoration and no additional cane is being accepted at our mills at this stage," the company said.

"Our immediate focus remains the safety of our people, protecting operational systems, and maintaining business continuity."

Tony Bugeja has 330 hectares under cane on the family property at Palmyra near Mackay.

Tony Bugeja says he is worried about the knock-on effects of the delay. (ABC Rural: David Sparkes)

The second-generation cane farmer said he was due to start harvesting on Thursday, and the delay caused by the cyber attack was concerning.

"Looking at it, we're going to lose at least a week," he said.

He said it was important to begin harvesting as early as possible to take advantage of high sugar levels and purity, which helped offset a lower sugar price.

Jason King, a former Australian Federal Police officer with 15 years' experience with cybercrime, said hackers were a growing threat to regional communities.

"They g