Go bananas for diversity
WASTE bananas could be turned into electricity and a new tequila brand developed when a world-first biorefinery takes off on the Atherton Tablelands.
Potential spin-offs for MSF Sugar’s revolutionary $60 million project will be presented to the Far North business community at the Cairns Chamber of Commerce lunch on Friday.
The sugarcane giant’s chief executive, Mike Barry, and business development manager, Hywel Cook, will unveil its plan to become a biofutures leader.
“With sugarcane, all we really do is make sugar,” Mr Cook said. “In the future we are going to make sugar, electricity, ethanol. We are looking at what other crops we can grow in the non-harvest.”
Construction on the new $75 million green energy power plant will be completed next year. Earlier this year, the company announced plans to build a $60 million biorefinery at the Arriga site within the next five years.
The proposed project would produce sugar, green base-load electricity and ethanol from the Tablelands’ crops.
“For example we might be able to take waste bananas and put it through our factories as well and make ethanol and electricity through the products,” he said.
MSF Sugar also has its sight firmly set on investing in agave, a commercially-grown Mexican crop that produces tequila.
“We believe people might become innovative and create small businesses around our mills,” Mr Cook said.
“Someone might decide they want to make tequila out of the juice we get from the agave plant or make rums.”
The project is expected to create 80 construction/farming and 50 operational jobs for the agribusiness sector. About $97 million will flow-on for regional businesses.
MSF Sugar owns four mills at South Johnstone, Mulgrave, Tableland and Maryborough.