Mill maintenance tops Canegrowers Mackay AGM agenda

Canegrowers Mackay chairman Kevin Borg spoke about the year just gone ahead of the non-profit company’s annual general meeting.

Canegrowers Mackay Chairman Kevin Borg addresses the AGM at the Mackay Turf Club on Wednesday, November 23, 2022.

A year that has proven very hard for Mackay canegrowers is showing no signs of ending when it should as the crush extends into the new year.

Canegrowers Mackay chairman Kevin Borg said the impact of the decision to extend the crush into early January would also extend to next year’s crop.

He spoke ahead of the Canegrowers Mackay annual general meeting held on Wednesday, November 23, at the Mackay Turf Club.

“We’ve got a very good crop out there (but) it’s been a fairly hard year this year,” he said.

“We’ve had bad weather and we’ve had really poor mill performance so I’d say the mill performance thing would be high on the agenda.”

Nikki Wright, the Greater Whitsunday regional director with the Department of State Development, was the guest speaker at the Canegrowers Mackay AGM on Wednesday, November 23, 2022.

Willmar recently announced that crushing at its mills would be extended into early January due to wet conditions underfoot.

“We’ve got very good prices out there. The price of sugar in the last 12 months held between 17 and 21 cents a pound. That’s a great positive for the industry,” Mr Borg said.

But he added that the rising cost of supplies and parts had to be factored in as well.

“Our fertilisers, chemicals, parts … prices skyrocketing in the past 12 months have taken the shine off (sugar) prices,” he said.

“It’s no good having good prices unless we can get the crop off in a reasonable time. We’d love to be able to have finished harvesting by the second week of November (but we’re) going to be crushing into the new year. It’s certainly not ideal. It’s going to impact on next year’s crop.”

On mill maintenance, Mr Borg said constant infrastructure upgrades meant it was more about the “people in maintenance and trying to get the mills into condition where they keep going”.

“There are a number of reasons why the crushing has gone on so long,” he said.

Canegrowers Mackay chairman Kevin Borg at the racecourse on Wednesday, November 23, 2022, for the AGM. Picture: Andrew Kacimaiwai

“We can’t do anything about the weather.

“Surely we can do something about mill maintenance and the investment within mills so that we can make the best of what’s in there.

“We need to have a good, long hard look at ourselves and see what we really want,” Mr Borg said about future prospects for the industry.

“If we can harness what’s been left on the table, sugar will be a lot more lucrative than what it is.

“We’re leaving millions and millions of dollars on the table through poor milling performance, which I guess is one thing we can control. Weather, we can’t control — so be it.”