Industry News
Australia’s cane toads evolved as cannibals with frightening speed
The list of ‘deadly animals in Australia’ just got a little weirder. The cane toad, a toxic, invasive species notorious for devouring anything it can fit in its mouth — household rubbish, small rodents and even birds — has become highly cannibalistic in the 86 years since it was introduced to the...
O’Connell River irrigation ban leaves Whitsunday farmers in lose-lose situation
A North Queensland farmer fears the state government's snap decision to turn off the tap to a major river tributary will damage both his crop and the Great Barrier Reef. Tony Jeppesen said while a closure of the O'Connell River was expected, the move was made weeks earlier than in other...
Regional industry: How Wide Bay Burnett loses and wins
The Wide Bay Burnett region about three hours’ drive north of Brisbane has mastered the art of keeping skilled workers after industries shut by gaining new employers. It is also trying to recruit people, including students and grey nomads, to help industry and farmers deal with shortages due to...
Grower Pricing Update – August 2021
Raw sugar prices spent the majority of August rallying higher as the ever-deteriorating Centre South Brazil crop whipped the market into a bullish frenzy. At the time of writing, the October 2021 ICE 11 contract had traded from its monthly low of 17.74 USc/lb up to a high of 20.37...
QSL welcomes new Independent Director
Former auditor and partner at Ernst and Young, Mark Hayward (right), will join the QSL Board from 1 September 2021 as an Independent Director. Mr Hayward’s appointment has been made in preparation for the retirement of QSL’s current Chairman Guy Cowan, who will step down after 14 years on the...
Sunshine Coast distillery mix things up with sugarcane
In a mixture of Queensland firsts, Woombye company, Cavu Distilling, are using sugarcane to create two new spirits. Launching later this year, their Original Cane product, under their Sunshine & Sons brand, will use locally sourced sugarcane, Oakes & Sons farm, to create a sweet fermented...
Wilmar Sugar Australia postpones Invicta Centenary community celebrations
Wilmar Sugar Australia has postponed its Invicta Centenary community celebrations this Friday due to the ongoing uncertainty around COVID-19. Burdekin Regional Operations manager Paul Turnbull said the decision to defer the community celebrations until later in the year was not made lightly....
Sugar giant charged with industrial manslaughter after worker electrocuted in Far North Queensland
Charges have been laid against one of the country's biggest sugar millers after a worker was electrocuted on the job in Far North Queensland two years ago. Brett Quinn was killed while dogging for a crane that contacted, or came in close proximity to, overhead power lines while working on a...
Canegrowers: Rebate should be available to all irrigation operations
Queensland's peak sugarcane growers body is calling the recent irrigation rebate given to horticultural growers as "unfair" and "discriminatory" to broadacre farming operations. The Palaszczuk government announced recently that horticulture growers would be able to access a further 35 per cent...
Wilmar Sugar’s first shipment departs Mackay
The first raw sugar of the 2021 growing season has been shipped out of the Port of Mackay with many local cane growers eagerly watching on as raw sugar produced at their local mill headed south. Wilmar's Plane Creek grower marketing consultant, Angus McKerrow and Mackay Sugar Terminal mechanical...
Webinar: Enhanced-efficiency nitrogen fertilisers: Potential benefits and selection of products for sugarcane
Please join us as we hear from Dr Weijin Wang as he presents research findings of the project, Smart Blending of Enhanced Efficiency Fertilisers (EEFs) to maximise sugarcane profitability. To mitigate N loss risks from the conventional urea, many improved N fertiliser formulations known as...
Low GI sugar that helps fight obesity, type 2 diabetes now a United Nations award winner
Sydney-born scientist David Kannar never thought developing a low GI sugar would see him internationally recognised less than five years later. After losing his brother to type 2 diabetes in 2016, Dr Kannar was determined to tackle the sugar crisis and improve world health, minimising the...
New yield benchmark
Sugarcane growers in the Burdekin have a novel new variety to consider for their future farming operations. The Burdekin Regional Variety Committee (RVC) met earlier this year to consider the commercial merit of the most advanced experimental clones in the Sugar Research Australia (SRA) breeding...
Record Shared Pool caps season
Queensland Sugar Limited (QSL) has finalised its 2020-Season pricing results, with the industry-owned sugar marketer notching up a record weighted average Shared Pool result of +$31 per tonne. The Shared Pool captures QSL’s operating costs, premiums, other revenue, and the Loyalty Bonus where...
Local Sugar Industry Partner Awarded at United Nations Food Systems Summit
Sunshine Sugar congratulates Nutrition Innovation on being officially recognised as one of the best SMEs in the world by the United Nations, as part of the Food Systems Summit 2021.The summit was created to raise awareness of the critical role that agriculture and food systems play in achieving a...
Great Barrier Reef in ‘recovery’ but experts say progress will be threatened by climate-related disturbances
The Great Barrier Reef is experiencing a rare window of recovery due to a break in weather and bleaching events according to the latest observations from marine scientists. According to the Australian Institute of Marine Science's Annual Summary Report on Coral Reef Condition, which was released...
Wilmar Sugar to commemorate 100 years of operation at its Invicta Mill
Wilmar Sugar is set to commemorate 100 years of operation at its Invicta Mill, with a full day of celebrations scheduled in August. The Invicta Mill, near the town of Giru, will be marking this milestone on August 19 with a barbeque breakfast for employees, followed by a community night at Giru's...
First Breeding of Sugar Cane Using CRISPR/Cas9
Sugarcane is one of the most productive plants on Earth, providing 80 percent of the sugar and 30 percent of the bioethanol produced worldwide. Its size and efficient use of water and light give it tremendous potential for the production of renewable value-added bioproducts and biofuels. But the...
Indian subsidies cost Queensland sugar industry $1 billion
Indian Government price and export subsidies have cost the Queensland sugar industry an estimated $1 billion. The subsidies, which are currently under investigation by the World Trade Organisation, have contributed to substantially lower global sugar prices, according to a new report by Green Pool...
First 2021 sugar shipment
QSL has dispatched its first shipment of sugar from the current harvest. The cargo of 42,000 tonnes of raw sugar from the Burdekin region was shipped on the Pacific Integrity out of Townsville earlier this month, bound for a refinery customer in South Korea. QSL General Manager Marketing...