Sugarcane Crop Is Mature For Change

By Kevin Borg, Chairman, CANEGROWERS Mackay

I’ve never had such confidence that the time is right for sugarcane to grow beyond its traditional sugar commodity basis and diversify into a range of renewable, sustainable biofutures products.

There is a mature political and commercial environment for it, and it is an opportunity that we as a region need to get on board with and realise a once-in-a-generation opportunity to diversify the regional economy and steer it in the direction of a clean, green sustainable future.

Hot on the tail of Life Sciences Queensland’s September Bioeconomy Forum, in recent weeks, Trade and Investment Queensland Trade Commissioner- North America Viki Forrest and General Manager-Queensland Operations Elton Miller visited the Mackay area to discuss with the economic export potential of sugarcane-based fuels and “future foods”.

This visit included a meeting with Canegrowers Mackay, including Deputy Chairman Joseph Borg, CEO Kerry Latter and myself, where we were able to discuss the trade opportunity that biofutures presents. They also met with the Greater Whitsunday Biofutures Leaders Group, of which Kerry Latter is also a member.

As an organisation, we are committed to seeing growers benefit from the development of a regional plant-based protein processing industry, and from renewable fuels and energy. Growers are the providers of the feedstock, a critical cornerstone in the development of the sector, and as small-to-medium enterprises that happen to farm, they deserve a real value proposition. Pricing of that feedstock will be important to enthuse growers.

The Trade Commissioner affirmed the opportunities are now and into the next several years, not a decade away, and the next generation plant protein companies are looking to invest in our region.

When it comes to an industry that is committed to sustainable and ethical production and supply chains, we in the Mackay region have a commercial edge over less developed sugarcane producing nations.

We offer a mature, stable economy. Our feedstock has the strong sustainability credentials that these companies require, thanks to programs like Smartcane BMP. Obviously, we have developed strong human ethical standards that do not use child or slave labour. Our state is working towards achieving net-zero renewable energy. For these reasons, Mackay is the region on everybody’s lips.

The world population - and particularly in the Asia-Pacific - is growing dramatically, and protein is a fundamental human health and diet. At the same time, the world is looking toward affordable solutions to meeting rapidly growing protein demands with renewable solutions that have positive outcomes for land use, environment and animal welfare.

Major overseas players that are looking to invest in our region have successfully created plant-based milk and egg substitute products from corn syrup (fructose). The Racecourse Biocommodities Plant, alongside other research facilities have done the work to show that sugarcane (sucrose) is a similarly useful feedstock.

The Queensland Sugar industry has always been a world leader in innovation, with other sugar producing countries following our lead. The challenge of stepping up to a robust biofutures sector is within our grasp. Queensland is in the box seat: significant companies are keen to come to Queensland and want to invest.

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