Chair’s Update
As I write this note, the harvesting season has been cruising along with some highs and lows and weather conditions have been extremely favorable for both harvesting and high CCS. The relative CCS season to date is sitting at 14.57 with the Base recently increased to 13.80.
The downside to the dry is the crops are shedding estimated tonnes at a rate of knots and the mill area estimate is starting to decrease. The weather hasn’t been extremely cold but in saying that, the soil temp is still quite cool which could hold planting up somewhat.
Recent news out of Isis has added a bit more uncertainty to the industry, especially when things are feeling pretty tough. We’ve discussed what this means for the long-term in the Bundaberg Region and am assured that for Bundaberg Sugar, it’s very much business as usual.
Bundaberg Sugar has had Bruno, the Belgian engineer helping to implement some more new technologies into the mill to help with increasing throughput and efficiencies, I personally think he has been a great help with this, albeit with implementation comes some short-term disruption to throughput. Hopefully we will see some substantial improvements for the rest of the season and beyond.
It is now more important than ever that all bins are full to maximise transport efficiencies and make sure every bin tipped at the mill counts towards the high throughput. An extra 0.5 tonne in each bin can add an extra 5000 tonnes per week meaning we can finish earlier.
Fuel price has been on the roller-coaster again with more pain and uncertainty being thrown into an already challenging mix. Fertiliser will probably do the same so talking to your reseller about locking in some fertiliser prices may possibly be of some benefit. One-Eye Setts have had an increased uptake this Spring with all orders in the grow out stage.
We recently met with QSL representatives to discuss recent changes to terminal operations, sugar pricing and FlexPay products and attended a grower breakfast the following morning. Sugar prices have had another little pickup and these small increase bumps give growers an opportunity to lock a small amount of tonnes away and increase your average price. QSL are going to be doing some more pricing option education in the near future and if you are interested, or have questions regarding pricing, please contact Menn Mutton on 0437 498 148.
The southern region productivity boards and district CANEGROWERS offices met with SRA recently to develop a strategic plan for the Bundaberg, Isis and Maryborough region including identifying and prioritising local and regional issues. This work will form the basis for SRA’s Lead Agronomist, Hector Fleury’s workplan, as well as provide guidance to the SRA Advisory Group and Regional Variety Committee.
We sat down with the DAFF Sugar Code of Conduct review team to provide our feedback to the review of the code and consider if the code is still fit for purpose and whether any amendments are required. In its current form, the code aims to support fairness, transparency, and clear processes across the whole sugar industry.
Oreco have finalised their 2025 payments to growers with the final late payment interest being invoiced. Once this is paid it will be distributed to growers.
Mark Pressler
Chairman
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