Despite industrial action and factional disputes sugar cane's future looks sweet 🍬 | ABC Australia

[Music] It's Kane harvesting season. Russell Hall is  a third generation farmer. His grandfather   started on this farm with tobacco in the 40s.  Around 20 years later the family switched to sugarcane. He's seen some changes over the  years. It's been a very lucrative industry   over the years, but probably in the last decade  or two it's starting to decline. Why has it been   starting to decline wasn't a great deal of money  in it. Regulations then came in. They're trying to   cut back our production through nitrogen and  phosphorus budgets. So we're coming out on the   other side of that with some really good prices  coming at us. Here in the Burdekin they still burn   cane. There's a lot of water in the area making  the sugar cane leafy. When you cut it there's   a lot of leaf litter making it hard to irrigate,   plus green cane is pretty difficult to cut on the machines. A cane burn runs deep into the image of  white Australia, but Russell says this harvest is   running later than he'd like, and according  to him it's not due to the weather rather   the sugar mills. We were sort of planning  on the fourth of June and between they're   blaming union activity but we had about three  or four days of strikes. But we are probably a   good 10 days or two weeks behind the eight ball  right from the start. When you say they   who do you mean? Wilmar. What do you think it was  then that stopped it, if it wasn't union? I don't   know Halina it was just getting to the point where  every year seems to be later. They have 30 weeks   to do maintenance on their mills and I don't  understand why it takes so long to do a factory. [Music] up Wilmar Sugar is Australia's largest  manufacturer and marketer of raw and refined   sugar products. It operates four mills in the  Burdekin region and another four elsewhere in   Queensland, servicing 1,500 cane growers. That's a  lot of mill maintenance which we will get back to.   The optics of sugar between farmer and mill to the  untrained eye often seems really fraught. What's the   reality? The reality is we need to work together, we  need to work harmoniously, with a common goal and   that common goal is to be able to process the cane  in a timely manner and maximize the profitability   of our industry. Industrial action halted milling  in the Burdekin region since May. After 18 months of   enterprise agreement negotiations both parties  accepted a Fair Work Commission offer in July   to help try and end their dispute. At the moment we  are working through our Union negotiation process   and and I won't go into the detail about that, but what we are here to do is to be able   to offer our employees a fair and reasonable  outcome, but we've got to make sure that the   industry remains sustainable in the long term.  He says that reasons for milling delays haven't   been obvious to growers. I think the division  comes from miscommunication at times and   probably a misunderstanding of the critical  role that we all play. Everyone's got a   key part in the chain and we all rely on one  another to do that part. I think at times we   don't understand each other well enough and how our actions and behaviours can influence   the whole industry as a whole. Jim Wilson from  the Australian Workers Union and Liam Shaky   from the Electrical Trades Union say the issue  with Wilmar is the low wages paid compared to   Mills operated by other companies and the mass  exodus of skilled workers we've seen as a result   of that. And what do you think the main result  will be? If they don't come to the party if   they don't come to the party we're just going to  see people continue to leave. I mean the real the   real risk that the mills are facing is experienced  staff experienced that have been there for   long periods of time, we've got members that are  working in the Wilmar Mills that have been there   for a long period of time that are getting paid  between $1 and $15 an hour below industry standard rates. At time of broadcast there still hasn't  been a resolution. This week Wilmar has put   a new offer out to vote for their workers and  unions are speaking with their members   to see if they will accept. Our members were  really clear with us they wanted to see this   result before the crush starts. Once there's  disruption to the crush that causes issues   for the community our members live in the  sugar communities. Unfortunately we haven't   been able to get that resolution and the only  avenue for our members is to continue with   the industrial action along with this assisted  bargaining and hopefully we can get something resolved. The troubles aren't  regional or company specific.   Right through the industry  growers have issues with mill operations. 3 and 1/2 hours drive south near Mackay Brooke Roebuck is learning the ropes of cane growing from   her dad, as he did before her. This cane Brooke, on  this part of the farm, looks spectacular it must   be right for harvesting right? Yeah so this is  actually a really good paddock to show the   comparison of when the cane was crushed and cut  at the same time so this cane here was cut at   right time last year hence the significant height  and ripeness. So it's ready to be cut now but down   here you can see the obvious difference. This  cane down here in this paddock was cut at a later   date and practically too late for the season. So  you can really see how it's affected the growth   of the cane. So that'll just be a big effect on  next year's yield and profitability for us. And   why was it cut so late compared to this field  here? So I think it's just a mixture of things   between the poor Milling supply and machinery  at the mills and just wet weather as well. So a   mix of both but yeah so this is the result  what you get when things just don't really   work perfectly. And is that a common occurrence?  In the last few years yes, but hopefully looking   forward we can get away from that. But currently  this is what we are left with. A little bit   every year. Brooke as a young woman in a mainly  male dominated industry is an unfamiliar face   in sugarcane farming. I was yeah a little bit  embarrassed but you know like I've done this   for a long time I'm not you know a stranger  to a farm. And I've had a little bit   of imposter syndrome when I first started, being  a woman in the industry. But I think the longer   that I've done this the thicker my skin's got  and I don't really care what people have to   say anymore. She says to be a decent cane farmer  there's one trait you need more than most. Patience .  A lot of patience. You get a few kicks  in the guts every now and then but you   know we've just got to try and soldier  on and keep our head up and hope for the best. But Russell Hall's patience is wearing thin.  He and a small group of other growers dissatisfied   with harvest delays due to issues at the mill  and labour shortages on farm have split from   the peak representative body Cane Growers. They've  created a new industry group called Qucar or   Queensland Cane Agricultural and Renewables.  You're with Agforce which is aligned with   this new body Qucar but Cane Growers is the main  industry body. Why are there so many different   industry bodies? I think it's human nature to think that someone can do a better job. Whether   you do or you don't a lot of people previous  to me have beat their head up against the brick   wall for a long time so I've just started that  journey in the last four years. So but we always   think that we can do better than the next  person beside us. So how does it work with   all these different bodies? Very difficult um  the government doesn't really know who to go   to. They go to Cane Growers, they are the peak  body at the present time, we're trying   to sort of break down barriers and   bring a different approach to the sugar industry. Last month Qucar held a rally which saw  politicians, union bosses, and Industry members turn   up to see what they were about. [Where do we begin.]  CEO of Cane Growers association Dan Galligan   acknowledges there are factions within the cane  farming community. It can sometimes seem like a   lot of tension between particularly farmers and  mills and there's sometimes different districts   have different relationships on growers, there's no  doubt about that. But all the work we've done with   all our members are saying look let's resolve  these issues as an industry, let's come together   with the milling and the growing sector, and our  marketers and our exporters and our traders and   our customers. So the solutions are absolutely  about working together as a supply chain and   there'll be differences there'll be some tensions,  and often it's around the seasonality of the   crush and the tensions around those. John Board is  a cane farmer and harvest contractor. He's less   concerned about factions and more worried about  the effect the milling factories performances   was having on communities. The whole towns are  suffering due to mill performance, whether it be   we're starting too in June and we're dragging  on way too late into December, and the   headlines that you read in the media are not relaying this to the public. Wilmar's James Wallace   says factories are having issues across the  country and maintenance is an expensive part of   the running costs. Operating a mill is an expensive  task. This year alone Wilmart Sugar and   Renewables is going to invest over $250 million  back into our factories and that's only capital   and maintenance costs. Operating the factories is  on top of that. Since 2010 Wilmar has invested $2 billion into our factories  to be able to keep them to operate and   to maximize our factory performance. On a world  scale then how competitive are you with all of   these costs? Walmart Sugar and Renewables, one of  our biggest challenges is to remain competitive   on the global scale and today we are still  remaining competitive and that's really around   our sugar quality and the product we can  produce, which keeps our - it allows us to get a   premium in the market because of our consistent  product and what we do. Despite the issue   between mill owners industry groups farmers and  workers, everyone's still optimistic about the   future and potential of sugar cane. Obviously  in the sugar industry in the last 20 years   we've seen eight sugar factories close and that's something no one wants to see. In terms of   how we remain sustainable is we've got to look at our  operating models and how do we effectively operate.   A part of that is diversification and looking at  other options and other products for what we can do. Far from the fire of the cane fields in head  offices in Brisbane the suits have big plans for   sugar cane. Mark Greenwood is the general manager  for Wilmar's commercial sugar and renewables arm.   electricity. We export electricity to the  grid. We produce bio-ethanol, and we have been doing   so for nearly 100 years now. We also produce  renewable fertiliser and stock feed so they   are our products we sell. The company produces 60  million litres of E10 bio-ethanol a year from its   Serena distillery in central Queensland But it's  sustainable aviation fuel or safs that the company   is focusing on beyond 2030. Currently Brazil is  making it from Tallow from cattle or used cooking   oil and that is the cheapest source of supply,  but also produces it from sugar-sourced ethanol.   Those projects are probably going to be complete  within the next five years and then after that 2030   and beyond they'll be looking for the next most  affordable source of sustainable aviation fuel   and that's likely to be SAF or sustainable  aviation fuel that's produced from ethanol, as we   can do at our sugar mills so rather than producing  sugar there is a potential like they do in Brazil.   to produce ethanol from that sugar juice. Cane  growers Dan Gallagan believes children are the   future of a multifaceted sugar cane industry. Oh  we're doing some great stuff in education. That   story of the circular economy has been a real I  guess hidden secret of the industry so we're investing   quite heavily now in oyr cane growers we're almost entirely funded by grower levies   here, but the industry has really said let's  get into schools we're working with the Primary   Industries Education Foundation. We've just  launched a new education strategy to to build   curriculum focused education material so that's  now almost - it's available in primary schools now   available in secondary schools. (It's) really key that  in agriculture we we can't sort of wait for   schools to come to us so I think we're really  positive about what we can get done there too. A couple of years as a cane grower Brooke  has an optimistic view on the future of   the industry and her role in it. I think  you just have to see what everyone else   is doing and decide you know you  don't have to be a follower and   do what everyone else is doing, but choose  what you want to do. See what's out there. [Music]