Sugar cane growers on the three major rivers of the Far North Coast are making money this year, which is a long way in front of their Queensland cousins.
Some clever forward selling on behalf of the NSW Sugar Growers has resulted in a gain translating to $70 to $80 a tonne on raw sugar, or $32 a tonne for cane in the paddock back to growers. That compares to about $24/t returned to the pockets of Queensland growers who remain fully exposed to global commodity prices.
This year’s crop is crushing well, with better than expected Commercial Cane Sugar (CCS) levels following a dry winter while recent rain is progressing the planting of seed cane billets.
East Coraki grower Rick Gollan, who farms with his brother Geoff, is busy planting varieties suited to the sub-tropics with a mix of higher CCS types along with others more resilient to frost and wet.
His flood plain country is dark and moist. Too much water can be the problem, but not at the moment and a harvest can yield 110t/ha to 160t/ha of cane, with one plant giving two to three crops, or ratoons, before getting hoed-out and rotated with soybeans or rice.
With the infrastructure in place sugar has been a sure thing for more than a century but Mr Gollan rues the fact that prices haven’t kept pace with the times.
“It was $38/t 40 years ago,” Mr Gollan recalls. “And back then fertiliser was $120 a tonne. “We should be getting paid more for our product.
“When a farmer is paid a fair price they are the first to spend money on their farm. If you feed a farmer the rest will come in behind him.”
Mr Gollan is not optimistic about sugar’s future, and is concerned about growing consumer opinion about his product.
“Sugar is a green product,” he says, “There’s nothing added. People just need to take it in moderation.”
Meanwhile Sunshine Sugar’s marketing arm is ramping up sales of the co-operative’s patented low-GI sugar, but real returns are slow to come and frustrate member growers.
“When introducing new products like this it takes time to get them right,” explains Sunshine Sugar’s Chris Connors.
