Independent economic analysis commissioned by the Australian Sugar Milling Council has revealed a total direct and indirect economic contribution of $267 million from the sugar manufacturing sector in Tully, Innisfail and surrounding areas in 2017-18, underpinning a total of 1,742 regional jobs.
Using sugar mill spending data grouped by postcode, respected analyst Lawrence Consulting was able to calculate and quantify the sugar manufacturing sector’s contribution last financial year by Local Government Areas (LGA).
“Direct sugar manufacturing spend of $196 million by the Tully and South Johnstone mills generated significant community benefits in the Cassowary Coast Regional Council area,” ASMC’s Director of Economics and Trade, David Rynne said today.
“The sugar mills pay wages to 724 employees, purchases cane from local sugarcane growers, and also contracted many local businesses to provide the goods and services required to run and maintain raw sugar manufacturing,” Mr Rynne added.
“Modelling the flow-on effects of the mill’s direct expenditure allowed the total (combined direct and indirect) economic impact to be estimated.”
Manufacturing contribution
The Lawrence Consulting analysis showed that sugar manufacturing contributes about 17% to the Cassowary Coast economy in terms of Gross Regional Product.
The two mills produced a total of 514,000 tonnes of raw sugar in 2017.
The mills used their 33.4 megawatts of installed renewable energy capacity to power production and export electricity to the Queensland grid. In 2017, they exported 65,900 megawatt hours of electricity, which was enough to power around 9,400 homes and around 75% of dwellings in the LGA.
21 January 2019