SINGAPORE-based Wilmar Sugar has been told again to end its long-standing dispute with about 1500 cane growers that supply its mills.
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LNP Opposition acting leader Deb Frecklington said she had written to Wilmar chairman and chief executive Kuok Khoon Hong calling on him to finalise supply contracts for growers.
“Everyone is sick of this and it needs to end,” Ms Frecklington said.
“It’s dragged on way too long and it’s past time that Mr Kuok and Wilmar followed the lead of all the other sugar millers who’ve been able to work with the growers’ choice in marketing legislation that the LNP successfully put through Queensland Parliament.
“Every other sugar miller in Queensland bar Wilmar has been able to reach agreement with their local growers on supply contracts for the 2017 season.
“Tully Sugar, Mackay Sugar, Maryborough Sugar, Isis and Bundaberg Sugar have all been able to sort this out.
“The obvious question is why not Wilmar?”
Comment was sought from Wilmar Sugar, which said it was still to receive Ms Frecklington’s letter. However, a letter sent from Mr Kuok to Burdekin MP Dale Last (LNP) on November 7 was provided to Queensland Country Life on the strength of Ms Frecklington’s media statements.
In that letter Mr Kuok said he also shared the frustration that cane supply agreements had not been achieved with all growers for 2017.
“However, I am optimistic that we are moving closer to an outcome,” the letter reads.
“The legislation enacted by the Queensland parliament in December 2015 has not created complexity and uncertainty, but also strained the relationship between parties. While I sure this was not your intention when you supported the change of law, it is, nonetheless, the unfortunate outcome.
“That said, we have gone to great lengths to ensure that we comply with the new laws, that we are reasonable in our dealings with growers and marketers of grower economic interest and that we act in an ethical manner at all times. I am satisfied that we have been fair and accommodated all reasonable requests from our growers.”
Wilmar is the only one of seven sugar milling companies not to have signed a cane supply agreement. COFCO’s Tully Sugar signed an agreement with Tully Canegrowers in mid-December. (CLICK HERE to read that story.)
Ms Frecklington said Wilmar growers wanted supply contracts that provided the choice in marketing and certainty that other millers have been able to achieve.
“They do not want contracts that offer ‘choice’ at some undefined stage down the track to next harvest. If they did, they would have surely taken that opportunity before now,” she said.
Ms Frecklington said the marketing impasse was affecting entire communities.
“This not only impacting canegrowers and their families, but also mill workers, their families and their local and regional communities,” she said.
“Queensland has long welcomed foreign investment – from investors who are able to work cooperatively and fairly with respect for local producers and their local communities.
“Mr Kuok needs to understand and accept that this is not about to change.”
Queensland’s sugar harvest just been completed with more than 34 million tonnes of cane was sent to the state’s 21 mills for crushing. It is estimated to be worth more than $2 billion as 4.3 million tonnes of raw sugar. (CLICK HERE to read that story.)
