North Queensland cane suppliers to miller Wilmar have called on the entity to “be good to their word” and expedite the final on-supply agreement (OSA).
Grower representatives from the Herbert and Burdekin representing some 11.5 million tonnes of uncontracted potential cane supply to Wilmar's sugar mills recently met in Townsville to discuss the delays.
Wilmar and marketer QSL have been at loggerheads since 2014 over an OSA, which allows growers a choice on a marketing agent for their sugar.
Canegrowers Herbert River manager Peter Sheedy said growers wanted to see good faith negotiations to allow them to get on with their lives.
“Wilmar's actions have inflicted untold grief on the sugar communities concerned,” Mr Sheedy said.
“Ongoing delays with an OSA and a cane supply agreement are only building greater resentment against our mill owner which is most unfortunate considering the mutual dependency that has historically driven growers and mills to work together as an industry.”
QSL also expressed frustration at the continued delays.
“It will probably come as no surprise to Wilmar growers that it is now almost three weeks since mediation and QSL is yet to receive the first draft of the on-supply agreement from Wilmar,” a QSL spokeswoman said.
“In fact their lawyers have indicated to us today that they now expect to deliver the draft contract by close of business on Monday 27 March.
“Like the many Wilmar growers keen to access QSL marketing choice, we find this extremely frustrating and disappointing, and we continue to press Wilmar to get the necessary paperwork to us as soon as possible.
“While the final OSA is required before we can finalise some of our marketing choice documentation and systems, we remain well placed to deliver QSL marketing choice to Wilmar growers once the contract paperwork is completed.”
A Wilmar Sugar Australia spokeswoman said upon reaching agreement in principle on 2 March, the entities committed to finalising a formal agreement as soon as possible.
“We explained to growers at the time that the final wording of terms for the agreement would be subject to a detailed drafting and documentation process, which we expected to take four to six weeks to complete,” she said.
“We continue to work to that schedule.”
