Up in the air

One year after Mossman Mill went into voluntary administration, the future for sugarcane growers remains uncertain.

12 months ago, Mossman district sugarcane growers were reeling from the news that their local mill had been shut down. Today, their future livelihoods remain unclear.

Daintree Bio Precinct and Far Northern Milling entered into voluntary administration in November 2023, and with no buyer secured, the liquidation process in recent months led to the auctioning off of vehicles and other mill equipment.

For the 2024 season, government subsidies enabled the Mossman crop to be transported two hours south, to the Mulgrave Mill at Gordonvale. Prior to the Queensland state election, the new LNP government promised $12 million in funding to guarantee the 2025 crop can also be transported to Gordonvale, while a further $500,000 was set aside for Queensland CANEGROWERS to lead a Cane Expansion Plan to secure the northern-most district’s future as a cane growing hub.

CANEGROWERS Mossman Chairman Matthew Watson said he is expecting the LNP will remain true to its word. “I’ve met (Premier) David Crisafulli a few times and he’s a straight up and down guy, he calls a spade a spade and he has an understanding of what we’re doing and what we’re trying to achieve,” he said.

“At the moment, I have all the faith in the world that he’s going to deliver. We’re still working with government on the funding, and we have to negotiate a deal with MSF Sugar.”

Matthew would like a deal to go even further to lock in successive years of crop transportation to Mulgrave.

“Cane grows well here,” he said. “We’re still negotiating to see if we can continue to truck down to Gordonvale for another three years to keep us alive and give potential investors time.

“If it all just shuts down tomorrow, people will walk away. You can have all the investors in the world turn up but if there are no farmers here to farm the land, they don’t just fall out of the sky.”

Liza Giudice has a slightly different position. She and her husband Michael still farm sugarcane in Mossman, but they have also invested in cane land in the Innisfail District, where they now live. While Liza would also like to see the 2025 crop transport fully subsidised, she believes any further government funding would be best spent helping growers to transition away from sugarcane, which is what the previous Labor government had earmarked some of its funding for.

“It’s really important that the transport costs get subsidised completely because there’s a chance then to transition,” Liza said. “If there is a portion of growers who want to continue to get a subsidy to send their cane to Mulgrave, I’m more than happy for those growers. For us, it’s a risk because we potentially don’t have a harvester.

“What my husband and I are looking at is what do we do with our land? How do we make an income so we can pay our rates, look after our house, make sure it remains agricultural land?

When you’re looking at diversification, there are more questions than answers right now

“Across the district, there’s been peanuts, sorghum, vanilla, chillies, paw paws, there’s a few bananas, there are little pockets of different crops, but I wouldn’t say there’s anything on a commercial scale.

“People have gone out of cane into cows. But again, I have questions: What breed? What grass? Where do I send them? What will it cost to erect fences? Do I have enough land to earn an income? All those questions have to be answered and that’s potentially where some of the funding money can be used. I’m not talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars but just some training and some help to then make a financial decision.”

Liza has also suggested a dollarfor-dollar government loan system to assist with transition, however Matthew Watson believes if there was a viable alternative to sugarcane, growers would have found it by now.

“Sugarcane’s high value and most of the land’s not big enough for cattle,” he said. “Also, we employ eight people during the season but if we go to cattle, that goes down to one person. You’re not employing people, so you lose kids at the school, you lose teachers, there’s a whole flow-on effect. They’re already losing a few teachers next year because they don’t have the kids at the school anymore.”

The fifth-generation sugarcane grower is concerned about the toll the unresolved situation is taking. “There’s been a lot of talk of mental health issues, people have been leaning on each other,” Matthew said.

“The older fellas, they’re usually busy, but now they’re just walking around kicking rocks; they don’t know what to do with themselves. They’ve got too much time on their hands. Trying to keep an eye on those guys is a bit of a worry.

“I’m a fitter by trade, I could go out to the mines if I had to but to walk away from the farm, that’s my whole life. I don’t want to go out to the mines, hence I’m still here. There are a lot of people who have already left town.

“I feel a real connection to the farm, is it because my family’s been here for so long? Maybe. If we have to go, we have to go. But what happens with all this land?”

An extended interview with Matthew and Liza is now available via podcast on the CANEGROWERS website. You’ll hear their perspectives on what went wrong with Mossman Mill, and what each think is now the best way forward.

To listen, go to www.canegrowers.com.au/news-media/podcasts