New chair of the Australian Sugar Milling Council Jannik Olejas sees plenty of potential for the Queensland sugar industry and hopes the organisation can drive innovation.
"I hope I can be part of creating tangible results," he said.
Sugar mills have long been powered using a by-product of crushing known as "bagasse" which is used as boiler fuel to power turbines and create electricity and its initiatives like this that Mr Olejas is passionate about.
"I hope we can get some real outcomes on behalf of members, for example we all talk about renewable energy, we already do a lot of renewables, we do bioethanol, we do co-generation of electricity," he said.
"What is the role we as an industry can play in the energy transition for Queensland? I'm very optimistic about the industry, there is a lot of opportunity."
The ASMC is a voluntary organisation, established in 1987 to represent raw sugar mill owners and is the peak policy forum aiming to be an influential voice for change in the Australian sugar industry.
Moving from Denmark to Mackay more than 3-years-ago, Mr Olejas who is also chief executive officer of Mackay Sugar, Australia's second largest raw sugar producer, was elected to the role after John Pratt retired from the position and from his role at Wilmar Sugar Australia.
He hopes to continue driving a united, proactive council in his role as chair.
"I think we all have a duty of contributing where we can," he said.
"Given we have had a long serving chairman, John Pratt from Wilmar Sugar, we discussed it amongst the board of directors and thought it might be a good opportunity to have a person from a different organisation take the role.
"I feel that tells you something about the type of cooperation in the sugar milling council."
While sugar prices have remained high, the industry has faced recent challenges of two La Nina weather events which have influenced growing, harvesting and processing seasons.
But it is the loss of farm land Mr Olejas feels could be a major issue for cane farming in the future.
"The biggest challenge on top of mind of all our members is the risk of losing land for cane," he said.
"Right now we are experiencing some attractive prices, but we do know we are dealing in a commodity based sugar market and what comes up goes down and we have seen tough times for growers, so we see land being lost.
"Urban encroachment and that kind is one thing but also farms just not being profitable, this is a big concern - our assets, sugar mills, they are huge investments and they are investments for decades so we are concerned if we see a diminishing volume of cane."
Mr Olejas also said the council would continue to lobby and strive for fair sugar trading conditions on the world market.
