QCAR’s Concerns Over Delayed Sugar Production Season

As Enterprise Bargaining Agreement negotiations continue between Wilmar Sugar Australia and its relevant employees and their respective Union representatives, Queensland Cane Agriculture and Renewables (QCAR) has urged parties to take negotiations “off-line” to enable season commencement to proceed with urgency.
With its collective member organisations representing approximately 20% of the sugarcane farmers and 15% of the total sugarcane production in Australia, QCAR CEO Stephen Ryan said the organisation is immensely concerned about its third-party risk and exposure from what has transpired during the latest round of negotiations.
“We (QCAR) represent our members, and the most important thing for our members is to have those mills open on time, running properly with maximum mill availability, and to have an orderly season and a timely finish so that next year’s crop isn’t deleteriously impacted,” Mr Ryan said.
“We empathise with all sides and positions, but we would like to see the parties take this off-line.
“Why can’t we take advantage of the good weather, get the season underway, keep all the towns humming and negotiate to the side?
“We don’t want the harvest season used as a bargaining chip.”
Industry trends show that Australian sugarcane production is expected to grow at 2.3% and opportunity growth is estimated at $3.6 billion over the next five years.  
Mr Ryan said for the Australian sugar industry to achieve this, the industry will rely heavily on the nation’s largest sugar cane processor, Wilmar Sugar Australia, to be optimally operating at exceptionally high levels of reliability and productivity.
He said a delayed sugar production season will have negative impacts on various aspects of the community, industry and supply chain.
“It puts pressure on everybody so we’ll either experience a compressed season to the extent that it’s able to be compressed, which can raise issues around cost and health and safety, but more often it means that the season gets pushed back and that negatively impacts next year’s crop,” he said.
“People are stressed and nervous to varying degrees, depending on what part of the supply chain or community they are, but obviously if this keeps going, it’s going to affect a wide variety of stakeholders.
“There are hidden impacts, but they are there.”
Whilst QCAR has no intentions of entering into the debate and detail of the negotiations and empathises with the difficulty of balancing the tension between an employer wanting to increase their profits versus a worker’s right to be properly remunerated for their efforts, Mr Ryan said the organisation and its members does have concerns and encourages the parties to rapidly settle their impasses.
“The restoration of industry stakeholder harmony is a strong part of QCAR’s mission towards Securing a Stronger Future.
“We desire to see, once again, the days where the sugar mill was the most desirable and esteemed career prospect in a local community which would set the highest calibre of standards in terms of employee performance and remuneration.”

QCAR’s Concerns
   1. An urgent need to take advantage of a currently available dry start to the 2024 season.
   2. Impaired Business Cashflows across all stakeholders.
   3. Wilmar’s advice that their Sugarcane milling factory performance and availability has been severely compromised in recent years due to the retreating of good, experienced operators and trades personnel and their inability to secure and retain such skilled labour.
   4. The dispute which has spilt into the public arena.
   5. Our members being directly impacted by the current industrial action.
   6. Short and longer-term industry sustainability risks through reduced productivity and profitability.
   7. Industry Mental health and well-being, being linked to concerns that this may create an increased expectation on industry partners potentially causing unintended consequences, particularly where fatigue becomes unmanageable in attempting to fill the void.
   8. Conjecture of a Mass Employee “Walk-out” because of this dispute.
   9. A legitimate fear of a repeat of the dark and disastrous 2010 season, where industrial action prevented a timely start-up during fine weather, eventuating in a season of a supply collapse when untimely wet weather set-in.

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