UNHAPPY canegrowers have turned up on-masse to a series of regional meetings in Queensland following Wilmar International's move to bypass the national sugar marketing company and set up its own trading business.
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Last month Wilmar announced it would exit the current industry-owned Queensland Sugar Limited (QSL) export marketing arrangements and set up its own commercial model tied to its global trading operation, one of the world's biggest sugar businesses.
Wilmar has capacity to crush about 50 per cent of Australia's sugarcane destined for export thanks to its 2010 takeover of Sucrogen's seven (formerly CSR) mills, plus acquisition of the Proserpine mill in 2011.
The Singaporean-based business is part owned by US farm commodity giant Archer Daniels Midland, with which it has many processing relationships.
Chief executive officer of farmer organisation Canegrowers, Brendan Stewart, said Wilmar's proposal "sent chills up the spine of growers in Queensland - not just those in Wilmar areas.
Producers were worried about what the decision would mean for family cane farms.
"We are talking about an enormous corporate entity making a decision which would change the landscape of marketing dramatically," he said.
QSL's national export operation is jointly owned by farmers and cane processors, providing what farmers believe is the most transparent means of marketing their sugar crop via an Australian Competition and Consumer Commission-approved export desk.
Sugar produced by the NSW Sugar Milling Co-operative is generally not sold for export.
Meetings held at Herbert, Proserpine and Plane Creek and in the Burdekin Valley today were called to break down Wilmar's claims, evaluate the real cost and develop an industry response.
Andrew Marshall
National agribusiness writer for Fairfax Agricultural Media.
National agribusiness writer for Fairfax Agricultural Media.
