CEO COMMENT

By Dan Galligan, CEO CANEGROWERS

PEOPLE OUR GREATEST AND SCARCEST ASSET

We spend a lot of time in agricultural markets looking at what we call "the fundamentals" to determine what prices will do and the corresponding market impacts.

The most basic of these fundamentals is supply and demand. While there are multiple other influences on the price of sugar, this driver is clearly the biggest indicator of performance in the sugar market.

If you ever have the chance to discuss the market drivers with an expert in the field, a marketer or a trader, their insight into the amount of data and analysis that goes into what can end up being decisions worth millions of dollars is mind-boggling.

Of course, it seems sensible that we place so much weight in such an important topic. However, our dynamic industry is always teaching us new lessons. One of the key messages out of the 2022 season is that high prices only matter if you can successfully harvest and crush your crop, and for this you need an appropriate workforce.

What we’ve learnt in recent months is that we lack the capacity to forecast, plan for and adapt to our changing workforce needs.

Amongst the many factors hampering our progress through this season is a desperate lack of critical workers in harvesting, transport, milling and, in some cases, terminal operations. These people, who for years have helped keep our industry running, are now either hard to find or have decided to make alternative work arrangements.

It has been a savage wake up call. But we are not alone. Through our work with the Queensland Farmers’ Federation and the National Farmers’ Federation we know that worker shortages are affecting every single agricultural industry across the nation.

CANEGROWERS worked hard prior to the season to attract workers to the districts through a nationwide promotional campaign. It has had some success and has shown what will need to be done for a number of years to come.

It would seem that in an exceedingly tight labour market, and on the back of a couple of very difficult years, some workers who have invested decades working in our harvest season have now moved on.

We must work as an industry to demonstrate the enormous opportunities in both seasonal and long-term careers, building diverse roles across our supply chain.

We will need to attract new and greater numbers of workers to the industry, particularly in the trucking and harvesting areas, and to do that we must improve our understanding of the needs of these businesses that support our farming operations.

How many workers, with what skills, in what locations, and at what times? CANEGROWERS will be working with our districts to do better at forecasting this demand and therefore influencing the range of government programs that are being targeted towards this challenge.

We already have a seat at the table with state and federal agencies who are seeking this knowledge from us and we are determined to work with government to direct their financial and policy investment to the priority needs of our industry, for this and the many seasons to come. •