In recent years a number of new varieties have come through the breeding program with poor fibre quality, resulting in soft cane that causes problems during milling. This project will identify the best strategies to process these soft canes in the factory. Some soft cane varieties have such high sugar yield that there could be a high financial return to the industry if a cost-effective way to manage them in the factory can be found.

Separate work is underway to measure fibre quality earlier in the breeding program. This work will take several years to impact on the pipeline of varieties for release.