Looking forward

15 years ago, the forwardthinking actions of CANEGROWERS Isis helped mitigate impending risks for the sugarcane growers of the area.

As part of the organisation’s strategic planning, the challenge of retaining and supplying harvesting contractors was identified as a potential threat to the district’s industry.

At that time a harvest contracting coop and another contractor were looking to exit the industry prompting the management team at CANEGROWERS Isis to actively investigate various harvesting models. This involved travelling to NSW and other sugarcane growing regions within Queensland to learn more about the different contracting entities.

As a result, Central Harvesting Cooperative Ltd was born, and the business remains an active and successful option for growers.

“The Central Harvesting model has stood the test of time, it is a true cooperative,” Central Harvesting Chairman Peter McLennan said.

“It’s a membership organisation, there’s a Board elected to run the entity, with four grower directors and one nongrower director, and we employ a manager to coordinate and implement day-to-day operations.

“Growers buy into the cooperative with a $1,000 share and exit with a $1,000 share, the equity remains in the business. This practice has been crucial to ensuring the longevity of the business, as a lot of partnerships have failed when one partner tries to extract equity.

“The model was also set up with four-year rolling supply contracts, this provided assurity around the cane being cut into future years and that was very innovative 15 years ago.

“One of the reasons these contracts are important is because they provide security for finance. These two things really set a solid base line for the business moving forward.

“There are around 50 growers that are members of Central Harvesting at the moment, the number varies, it has been as high as 65 growers, our contracts are a mix of member and non-member cane within the district.”

There are many benefits for the sugarcane growing district, a sustainable harvesting contractor provides reassurance for growers and the local view is that Central Harvesting will be around for the long term. Members also receive other benefits including competitive pricing for consumables like oils, fuels and hydraulic hoses, and members can also access the inhouse skills of the workforce.

“From the mill’s perspective, they are dealing with a reasonably sized entity with some large daily allocations which provide efficiencies to the mill,” Peter said.

“From Central’s perspective the multiple machines provide efficient productivity and management. We can mix and match different tonnages with different areas, to get the best efficiencies and economics around the harvesting price.

“Another valuable point for the industry is due to the size of our operation, over the last 15 years, we have been able to retain our key staff, through the slack to rebuild and maintain the machinery.

“Because of our good reputation, we also maintain external contractors’ machines within the district as well as our own allowing us to retain our skilled staff.

“We don’t actively compete against other contractors, but when an opportunity arises where a contractor is exiting, or growers are looking for contractors, then we do our best to explain the benefits of Central Harvesting.

“Harvesting is an even bigger risk than before, there are less, and less harvesting contractors in the industry and different mill areas are starting to identify harvesting as a capacity constraint, as in what they can put through their rollers on the day is subject to how many tonnes the harvesters can bring in.

“It remains an issue for the industry moving forward, so entities like Central Harvesting, that are sustainable and workable, are important to be part of any future discussions.”

Haulout positions available for coming season

Experience in haulout operation preferred but not essential as training will be provided. Please email centralharvesting@hotmail.com or call Leon on 0419 772 406