MIDWAY MARK

Race to get crop off before big wet arrives

With a large healthy crop and sky-high sugar prices, 2022 has the potential to be a bumper year for Queensland's sugar industry. But as the 2022 cane crush passes the midway mark, growers are anxiously eyeing the horizon for rain clouds that threaten to derail the season.

Despite getting off to a rocky start due to widespread rain events, and the ongoing issues with mill reliability and workforce shortages, harvesting crews have delivered over 50% of Queensland's sugarcane crop to the state's 19 mills.

However, the Bureau of Meteorology's recent declaration that a third straight La Niña event is now underway, has growers worried that the already delayed crush might be further disrupted, with cane left in the paddock a real possibility.

Rachel Davis, the Horticulture, Sugar and Wine Lead at BOM said communities and industries across eastern Australia should be prepared for wetter than average season.

“This is not just due to La Niña, there are a lot of other climate drivers and factors adding to this event,” Ms Davis said.

“The wetter outlook is also influenced by warmer waters around Australia which favour more evaporation and cloud coverage in our region, and this has shaped the outlook for the weather ahead, where we do have a wetter than average spring and early summer forecasted.”

Wet weather is just one area of concern in what has been an unusually disrupted season for Queensland's cane harvest, CANEGROWERS Chairman Owen Menkens said.

“It’s been a tough year for the crush due to wet weather at the start and there has been a lot of mill performance issues up and down the state," Mr Menkens said.

"Nearly every area is looking at a December finish, with some areas possibly working into January.

“Once you get into that period it tends to be wetter with more chance of rainfall at that end. There is a genuine worry that growers may have some standover and that creates some concern.

“We’ll obviously be working as hard as we can with the districts and the mills to get the cane off as quick as we can."

You are better off putting your hand up early to seek advice because the more time you have the more tools that are available to manage the problem.

The prospect of standover cane is particularly worrying for growers who have forward priced sugar.

Most growers will recall 2010, when the early onset of the wet season resulted in growers being unable to deliver the cane required to cover forward price sugar, at a cost of over $100 million to the industry.

QSL CEO Greg Beashel said weather risks are top of mind particularly this year with growers, and with some delays in every region and forecast for more wet weather, it’s something the QSL team are watching closely.

“Putting myself in the shoes of the growers at this time, I know I can’t become complacent about how many tonnes I’m going to deliver. I need to keep an eye on what tonnes I am going to

produce and how that might have been affected by weather or the crops a bit different to what I first predicted and compare that to the tonnage that has been priced,” Mr Beashel said.

“You are better off putting your hand up early to seek advice because the more time you have the more tools that are available to manage the problem.

“Start talking about it early, QSL has people on the ground to help with a range of solutions, the sooner you get onto it the better.”

While all districts are experiencing some delay, Rocky Point is undoubtedly the worst effected. The mill, originally scheduled to start crushing in June, has so far failed to fire up.