With rising world prices and the state investing in it’s use as a biofuel component, there’s high hopes ahead of this year’s sugarcane crush.
Canegrowers Chairman Owen Menkens has already flagged the benefits expected this year after a sharp rise in the world sugar price, and a drop in fertiliser costs, signalled a huge turnaround from earlier challenges.
Two years ago the price for sugar couldn’t even cover the costs of production for most growers, and despite rising prices in 2022, wet weather caused substantial delays at the start of the crush for the region’s mills.
This year, the canegrowers top representative is expecting a predicted 8.4m tonnes of cane to be processed during the season, provided all goes well.
“That would be a little bit higher than last year, but we’ll have to wait and see what happens,” Mr Menkens said.
A sugarcane harvesting crew in action in the Burdekin. Photo: John Andersen
“Once the crushing gets going, hopefully we see things stay a bit dryer, which will mean higher sugar content.
“With the wet weather and some poor milling performance that slowed us down and we didn’t end up finishing until January. Hopefully this year we can get a good run and get it all off at the right time.”
Mr Menkens said the general outlook among growers around the Burdekin region at the moment was positive, but there were some challenges in finding staff.
“There’s a bit of difficulty at the moment finding drivers for haul outs this year, but it’s probably not as bad as last year. Everyone’s pretty much ready to go.”
The more long-term outlook also seems favourable, with Mr Menkens spotlighting worldwide sugar prices trending upward and a deficit in the world market that could provide further opportunities for growers.
“As an industry we’re also looking at other options for the sugar cane plant as well, the sustainable aviation fuel and a few other things,” Mr Menkens said.
The push to use sugar cane in the production of sustainable biofuels was given a boost recently, as the state government announced a proposal to develop fuel using sugarcane waste pulp and other agricultural by-products.
“The government’s looking at a project down in Brisbane with Qantas, but there’s projects in Mackay and Townsville as well. It’s probably still a bit further out, it’ll take a few years to develop, but it is really exciting,” Mr Menkens said.
“There’s definitely a market there and sugar cane’s a great product for making aviation fuel. Hopefully it can mean a better result for growers, it would help us get a more consistent price rather than just relying on the world market.”