Industry presses India to comply

INDIA is under growing pressure to end its flooding of the international market with heavily subsided sugar following the London meeting of the Global Sugar Alliance.

Queensland sugar cane growers last week touched down on home soil after attending the conference.

Global Sugar Alliance members, who make up 85 per cent of the world’s growers, reaffirmed their commitment to use all avenues available to stamp out export subsidies and improve profitability for Queensland growers struggling with the poor sugar price.

Local growers supplying the Mulgrave and South Johnstone mills have blamed the soft ICE 11 for the worst crush in 2018 outside a cyclone year.

Innisfail grower Joe Marano said bad weather, which contributed to poor tonnage and CSS, coupled with the poor sugar price had led to $24 million being wiped off the value of the Innisfail sugar industry in the past three years.

“It’s a concern,” Mr Marano said.

“It’s something we need to look into.”

Global Sugar Alliance chairman and Queensland Sugar Limited managing director Greg Beashel said solutions in the form of an Indian ethanol industry could offer a solution.

“We fully support the case Australia, Brazil and Guatemala have taken in the WTO,” Mr Beashel said.

“We look forward to a swift resolution of this matter and call on India to consider alternative, non-trade distorting, solutions to deal with its subsidised surplus sugar production.

“(The GSA’s) priority is to secure a world in which sugar can be traded freely across regional and global markets.”