Growth, upskilling and an Australia first bio-fuel plant pave the future for NQ cane

The workshop, held February 1-2 in Townsville, brought together members, directors, stakeholders and future leaders where key issues and opportunities were discussed, fleshed out and pioneered for the future of the sugar cane industry.

Around 25 attendees from the Burdekin, Herbert and Mackay regions attended the "in house" meeting, discussing the company's "strategic goals and priorities, strategies, organisational structure and governance arrangements", looking forward to laying a "robust foundation for the organisation's future".

Director Charles Quagliata said the workshop was held to bring the organisation forward and to broach discussions about what has been "lost in the industry" and what members would "like to retain".

"And actually having a plan to move forward with the modern day world in the sugar industry. There's been a lot of change and we are pretty well working on plans that we can see getting up to date with where a collective should be with their membership," he said.

Workshop facilitator and QCAR CSO Michael Kern said the strategic planning workshop was the first opportunity for the newly named organisation (re-branded as a joined force with AgForce) last September, to discuss strategic direction.

"Since our workshop, Jet Zero Australia and LanzaJet have made announcement about putting a ($300m) Sustainability Aviation Fuel plant in Townsville, using sugar cane crops to make (bio-fuel)," Mr Kern said.

The SAF plant, brought about from a partnership with LanzaJet, Qantas, Jet Zero and Airbus, is the first of its kind in Australia, positioning the industry as a LanzaJet ethanol pioneer for sustainable aviation.

Project Ulysses, a North Queensland SAF project will use LanzaJet's Alcohol-to-Jet technology to convert bio-ethanol into SAF and renewable diesel.

The project will convert agricultural by-products into 102m litres of SAF each year - potentially meeting the annual jet fuel demands for Cairns and Townsville airports.

Construction on the plant is expected to begin this year.

"We've had some very positive conversations with the state government in the (renewables) space," Mr Kern said.

"Renewables are really the future of the sugar cane industry...we now refer to it as the sugar cane industry because sugar cane itself can be used for so many things in bio energy, bio fuels, food, plastics, hydrogen, electricity, and more importantly - rum.

"It has a number of uses that are just going to be the future. Just focusing on the white crystal sugar is not the future. We're very keen to explore those opportunities, not the least of which is the move by aviation companies in the SAF space, where they use the sugar cane juice to produce ethanol and aviation fuel. That's an exciting development on its own."

Mr Kern said the workshop revolved around normal issues with "supplying cane to the mill or factory" as well as the "issues affecting farmers being able to maximise their incomes...and the opportunities".

"For that obviously we need a structure. We're trying to grow and (grow) the amount of tonnes we supply, grow and produce. We're talking about how to get that footprint wider," he said.

While there are still non-disclosure agreements in place regarding talks with a number of organisations, Mr Kern said he could reveal that exciting times were ahead for QCAR.

"We've been approached by organisations...It would be fair to say there's quite a number of potential opportunities out there in the market that people possibly don't even know exist at the moment," he said.

"It's just really exciting for the future to think that there may well be markets, where it's food or energy or other products that might cause the sugar cane industry to have another growth spurt."

"Around that 31m tonne of sugar cane produced every year, 8m is produced in the Burdekin, and roughly 4m in the Herbert and Mackay region...and there's the capacity in existing mills to grow close to 40m, with some other industry offerings," Mr Kern said.

"There is great potential to grow this clean, green, renewable product even more to really help sustain the economy."

While expansion plans are yet to be fleshed out, Mr Kern said the organisation is eyeing off growth in other regions, as well as honing in on structure and personnel for potential growth.

"This is an election year...it's an important time to sit down and revisit some of the policies on our policy platforms and make sure they're still current and relevant and something we can approach the government with," he said.

"We're still looking at the whole green and red tape costs...it's extraordinary and debilitating for farmers.

"We're still looking for quality assurance on sites and we want to confirm models and myths out there in terms of wrong doings that farmers do, yet they are very, very responsible custodians on their land and I believe they make a positive contribution to the environment.

"We want to improve the way we do farming and invest in farm research. We believe it's important."

Another aspect revolved around expanding skill and training opportunities through a new grant.

"That's where the government can help with introducing certificates and diplomas...encouraging the next generation of farmers," Mr Kern said.

"In the same way there is a first home buyer's grant. For a couple of years we've been working on a first farm owner's grant...through our collaboration with AgForce. The Young Producers Council has taken the running on that."

The future is looking bright for the industry and the cane body as a whole - with QCAR focused on setting a "very clear vision and direction" to try and make the "value proposition for both existing members and future potential members".

"We're trying to set the value proposition so everyone can see the value in it and want to be a part of the organisation going forward," Mr Kern said.