With no mill to crush their sugarcane, the farmers of Mossman face an uncertain future

There’s something missing in the air over Mossman this winter as farmers begin to harvest their sugar cane crop.

Mossman cane farmer Joe Raldini. Picture: Brian Cassey

For most of the past 127 winters, a thin column of grey steam has risen above the town of Mossman in far north Queensland.

This year, the plume is distinctly absent and the chimney stack is as lifeless as the sugar mill beneath it.

Also missing are the sugarcane-laden trains that usually dissect the district’s emerald green cane fields on their way to and from the mill.

The trains have been replaced by a fleet of trucks, but instead of making their way to the Mossman Sugar Mill the trucks are headed down the Bruce Highway on their way to the MSF-owned Mulgrave Sugar Mill at Gordonvale, 100km south.

When Joe Raldini started harvesting his fields last week, it was a bittersweet moment as he realised this could be the last harvest in the Mossman district, Australia’s northernmost canegrowing region.

After the harvest, which runs until the summer wet season, the cane will ratoon and grow again, but whether or not Mr Raldini and other canegrowers will fertilise and treat the crop for pests is undecided.

Rusting sugar cane carriages at the mill. Picture: Brian Cassey

It depends on whether a new buyer comes in to take over the formerly grower-owned Mossman mill, after its parent company went into liquidation this year.

“Unless there’s a concrete deal with (another mill) to take our cane, it won’t happen next year,” Mr Raldini said.

“This year we’ll make a slight bit of money, it’s only a fraction of what we should be making, but the important thing is we are clearing our crop.

“We’re looking at next year and if someone like MSF says they will take over and there will be a future, then we will look at fertilising.”

This year’s harvest, which began last week, has been achievable because of a $6m lifeline from the state government to subsidise transport costs. The great irony is that as the aged Mossman mill remains shuttered, global sugar prices are at historic highs.

About 130 people lost their jobs when the mill closed in March after a lifesaving deal with a potential buyer collapsed.

It’s been a devastating blow for the town of 1900 people, 75km north of Cairns, which has an economy based on tourism and sugarcane. Now, the $180m economic value provided by the latter is set to disappear.

For a time, the 90 farmers who had spent $15m preparing their current 300,000-tonne crop, valued at about $60m, faced the prospect of having nowhere to send their cane once it was harvested.

The now silent Mossman Sugar Cane Mill. Picture: Brian Cassey

The $30-a-tonne freight cost to Mulgrave was prohibitively expensive, but last month the government agreed to subsidise half of the cost.

While they’re grateful for the assistance, canegrowers have been frustrated that the government agreed to fund the $6m, which will extend the life of the cane industry by one season, but did not agree to a $5m loan earlier in the year that could have helped the mill trade through to the money-making cane-crushing season, potentially saving it.

The government gave $5.9m to Douglas Shire Council to run a “transition program”, but cane farmers said there was only one truly viable crop suited to the wet tropics.

“Whatever crops we can grow aren’t going to make us the money that sugarcane can, that’s the long and short of it,” Mr Raldini said. “We’ve all tried peanuts, sorghum, corn, mung beans …

“It’s been proven that in the wet tropics sugarcane grows best.”

Mossman canegrowers used about $25m in government assistance to buy the mill from Mackay Sugar in 2019, and planned to establish it as a biofuel and bioplastic precinct to complement the volatile sugar market.

But without the government backing an uptake agreement for the biofuel produced – which is more expensive than traditional fuels – it could not get off the ground.

Jack Murday, who has 15,000 tonnes of cane on his 200ha farm ready to be cut, said for biofuel to be viable, it required either government subsidies or a policy mandating its use.

Australian Cane Farmers Association spokesman Jack Murday. Picture: Brian Cassey

“There is a great opportunity here for anyone who wants to do that because there’s millions of tonnes of biomass that is going to a central location through the rail system,” he said.

Mr Murday, a spokesman for the Australian Cane Farmers Association, said the effect of the mill’s closure was already noticeable in Mossman, but the “worst is yet to come”.

“The town isn’t looking as vibrant as it usually would at this time of year,” he said.

Queensland Agriculture Minister Mark Furner said the government was pleased the harvest could begin and hoped the sugar industry could find a future.

“Our government is supporting Mossman growers and the local community and it’s great news that the transport of cane is now under way,” he said. “We are continuing to invest in the Mossman community by supporting alternative opportunities in the region.

“This will go a long way to supporting the sugar industry in Mossman moving forward.”