Crush debrief looks to future

AS THE 2019 Far Northern crush ends growers are taking stock of another poor season and brainstorming ways to arrest the decline of an industry fast losing land to banana production and urban expansion.

At the completion to the Mulgrave Mill crush on Friday a total of 1.2 million tonnes of cane was crushed.

The South Johnstone Mill managed 1.3 million tonnes at about 70 tonnes per hectare.

Innisfail Canegrowers chairman Joe Marano said it was another disappointing year.

“It has been one of the poorest crops outside a cyclone season,” he said.

“It was pretty disappointing in tonnage, contributed by the dry weather back in September last year.”

Mr Marano said bad weather leading to poor tonnage and CSS coupled with subsided Indian sugar flooding the market had led to $24 million being wiped off the value of the Innisfail sugar industry.

“It’s a concern,” Mr Marano said.

“It’s something we need to look into.

“The miller and the growers together need to look at ways we can add value and keep cane in the area. How do we keep the industry alive in the current climate?”

MSF’s cane supply general manager Hywel Cook said a meeting, to be attended by all stakeholders, would attempt to find a solution to the decline of the industry.

“We have been losing land to bananas and development in the Cairns region so that is putting pressure on us,” he said.

“Both the miller and the grower need to find ways to work together … on strategies to reduce the impact of weather on the crop,” he said.