The sugar industry is well-positioned to sweeten Queensland’s economic recovery with the 2021 season seeing 30 million tonnes of cane, crushed and processed into approximately 4 million tonnes of raw sugar, supporting 23,000 jobs across the State and generating $2 billion in export revenue.
Rachele Sheard, Chief Executive Officer, Australian Sugar Milling Council; said despite the continuing response to COVID-19, rainfall interruptions during the crush and an ever challenging global marketplace, it has been close to business as usual during the past crushing season.
“This has been important in a year when other traditional coastal Queensland industries have been hard hit by border closures, and as an industry, we know the expectations on us to continue to deliver in 2022 and contribute to Queensland’s economic recovery,” Ms Sheard said.
“It wasn’t all plain sailing this year, with unseasonal rain during the crush and operational challenges at some mills. Despite this, the majority of the crop was processed with the last of the mills in the Mackay district not finishing the crush until 29 December.
“The whole supply chain has worked together to maximise the harvesting and production of raw sugar and other products. With final tallies in we can see that the result is below where we hoped to be at the start of the season but still a good result for the industry.”
The mills will now use the valuable downtime between processing seasons to execute their maintenance and capital programs in preparation for the 2022 season.
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For more information, please contact:
Rachele Sheard, CEO, 0408 777 898
Jim Crane, Director, Industry and Government Affairs, 0400 991 931
For a pdf of this media release please click here.
Background
ASMC is the peak organisation for the sugar manufacturing sector, working to transform Australian sugarcane by diversifying the industry, expanding trade opportunities and creating new markets. ASMC represents five sugar manufacturing companies which collectively produce 90 percent of Australia’s raw sugar at their 16 sugar mills in Queensland.