CEO Comment

By Dan Galligan, CEO CANEGROWERS

Positioning ourselves for the future

As the saying goes, if I could predict the future I wouldn’t be working for a living. To that end, predicting what 2023 will bring is probably a fraught exercise and I am clearly not a clairvoyant.

But we can be informed by our past to help prepare for what lies ahead. From a policy standpoint the 2022 season was notable. Internationally, we saw the finalisation of the UK Free Trade Agreement, and renewed energy behind the EU Free Trade Agreement and some momentum behind the much-needed reform of the World Trade Organization. Nationally, agriculture continued to grow with National Farmers’ Federation reporting the sector is now at $86bn – well on the way to the 100bn target by 2030. The political shift with the Albanese Government was most impactful when we look at environment policy and the agreement to pursue a net zero emissions goal by 2050 and an interim target of 43% by 2030.

Further we saw recent conclusions of the new and broad industrial relations legislation and policy positions on establishing a new environmental protection authority. These three positions will etch out a platform for our relationship with the Federal Government for many years.

The year also demonstrated how our industry is evolving. The release of the Sugar Plus roadmap proposed a new more diverse industry. The reality of this could be closer than we think when we look at projects proposed and underway across many districts and the State Government in serious discussion around policies to support a sustainable aviation fuel industry. The sustainability credentials of growers were evident when we saw the first trial of a traceable, certified sustainable shipment of sugar marketed in November. Closer to the challenges in the paddock CANEGROWERS secured permits for Imidacloprid and RATOFF on the back of our earlier work in May to obtain an emergency use permit for MCPA (expired in August). All very practical outcomes to the business of farming. These examples in international policy, political advocacy, industry evolution and on ground action can fairly safely point towards where things will head in 2023.

We know there is further international progress to be made with the Free Trade Agreement in Europe and CANEGROWERS will continue to work towards promoting the value of sustainable Australian sugar into the United States market which is hungry for our product. Sustainability and market recognition of our certified, traceable supply chain will continue to be a key feature in 2023. Converting our current market recognition and use of technology into revenue for the industry is a major focus and will be a critical part of the sugar plus story. On ground input costs, especially fertiliser, chemicals and electricity will be top priorities but the broader concept of the ability of farmers to be able to conduct farming operations, transport products on our roads, run irrigation pumps and develop new country for an expanding industry are all issues that must be addressed if we are to see the industry evolve.

The list of issues to face us in 2023 will be extensive and as is always the case the issues we can’t predict may be our most challenging. But also, CANEGROWERS has been working on many of these issues for many years. Carefully positioning the industry to face them with confidence. We see all industry issues from the perspective what they mean for growers and their communities and with this in mind we will face the ups and downs of 2023 together.