Foreign interests have grip on sugar

AUSTRALIA needs to be “open for business, but not open to sell the shop”, Agriculture Minister Bridget McKenzie has warned as foreign interests snapped up part of an iconic Queensland industry.

Sugar milling in Queensland is set to be 95 per cent majority foreign owned by next month. But a look at foreign ownership reveals one of the state’s biggest rural industries – beef, livestock and grazing land – has fallen in the past three years.

In one significant example, pastoralist Malcolm Harris bought Queensland’s Nockatunga Station from multinational Consolidated Pastoral Company in October last year.

The amount of foreign ownership in agricultural land fell from 13 per cent in 2016 to 11 per cent last year. Land used for livestock made up the bulk of that, falling from 15,349,000ha to 13,294,000ha of properties with foreign investment.

But the agriculture industry has said this is not likely to continue, and it warned that international investment was vital to keep the industry going.

A 70 per cent share of Mackay Sugar is being bought out by German company Nordzuker, while Isis Central Sugar Mill, southwest of Bundaberg, is expected to go to Pakistani-owned Almoiz Group by the end of next month.

It means 19 of the 21 sugar mills in the state, and 95 per cent of the production, will be in foreign hands.

Senator McKenzie said it was her preference for agriculture assets to be majority foreign owned, but that there were unique factors in the sugar industry, including “the historical low price of sugar”.

“Foreign ownership must be in the national interest – we’re open for business but not open to sell the shop,” she said. “Investment is required for Australia’s sugar industry to continue to be globally competitive.”