U.S. SUGAR ASSESSES HURRICANE WILMA DAMAGE

CONTACT: JUDY SANCHEZ 561-261-3167

October 26, 2005 -- Clewiston, FL, "Our local communities have been severely damaged. We are working with local officials and FP&L to try to restore power to critical community services. At this time, Clewiston and Belle Glade are virtually without power and running water. Many area houses have been destroyed and most of our employees are without basic services," said Robert Coker, Senior Vice President, Public Affairs.

Coker said that the Company is preparing land near the Clewiston Airport for FEMA housing and are working to provide land for hurricane and agricultural debris.

"We are trying to restore critical administrative functions at U.S. Sugar, and we have begun the process of assessing damage throughout our operations," Coker said.

Sugar Operations
Harvest and processing operations on the eastern side (Bryant Mill) were suspended late last week as the hurricane moved toward Florida. Due to the approaching storm, we did not begin our scheduled harvest on the western side serving the Clewiston Mill. The Clewiston Refinery closed during the weekend prior to the storm and is expected to be back up and running in the next five days.

Sugar farming and processing operations throughout the Glades suffered substantial damage as a result of Wilma's 100+ mph wind and rain. The sugarcane crop has substantial damage across the entire growing area. The extent of the damage is not known at this time, as we are in the process of looking at each field, many of which remain flooded. It will be some time before we have initial damage estimates.

Our sugar mills also suffered structural damage, in particular the cooling towers and sugar storage warehouses. In fact, all of the sugar mills and warehouses in the Glades area have been hit hard. Storage warehouses are a critical part of the sugar processing, as raw sugar is stored to be sold and refined throughout the year. Equipment shops have been damaged and our entire operations are without power.

U.S. Sugar's internal railroad suffered significant damage as locomotives and railcars were blown over, around and off the tracks due to hurricane and tornado forces. Railroad tracks also sustained significant damage and crossing guards have been blown down. We are working closely with DOT to deal with these issues.

At this time, we do not know when sugarcane harvesting and processing will resume.

Citrus Operations
Although Florida Citrus Mutual released an original estimate of 10-15% citrus crop loss; our early assessment reveals that number seriously underestimates the loss. From what we have seen in our own and other area citrus groves, approximately 40-50% of the fruit is on the ground. Further fruit loss most probably will occur from these hurricane-damaged trees.

Our Southern Gardens Citrus Processing facility suffered significant structural damage, but it does have the ability to operate. We plan to begin salvage harvesting and processing fruit on Monday. We intend to get as much of the dropped fruit into the plant as possible to limit crop losses.

We will have more information as our ongoing field by field damage assessments are completed.