Business
1 October, 2024
Asset sales in the wind
SOME Mossman cane growers may have to sell off assets to pay their bills over the next year to 18 months.
Mossman Canegrowers manager Evelyn Matthews said it was “a bit too early to say things were moving in a positive direction for farmers yet”.
This year’s crop is being trucked to Gordonvale for crushing with some help from the state government.
“We are certainly actively trying to get farmers to a better place, but it is still very early in the transition process,” Ms Matthews said.
“At the moment everything tends to feel like it is working against us, so a lot of the emotion expressed tends to be a bit fatalistic,” she said.
“However, as growers are facing the potential loss of livelihoods and businesses, this expression is to be expected for a while.
“As to how things are progressing – well slowly to be honest.
“The crushing has many challenges so the tonnages we would like to transport are not consistent enough yet.
“The estimated tonnages we hoped to supply have been reduced considerably due to various issues. We are looking at the 180,000 tonnes range rather than the 260,000 tonnes of cane.
“This obviously will impact the amount of stand-over to be dealt with as well.
“The formal transition plan development is also a slow process. The consultants have just been appointed and a program manager engaged so the stakeholder advisory committee needs to meet and move things forward.
“The development process is likely to be a few months with a final plan in place for implementation in early 2025.
“In the meantime, growers have no further income from their 2023 crop and only small amounts coming in from the 2024 crop provided they have cut and supplied cane.
“There is going to be a gap for growers to fill either with off-farm income or jobs. For some it may also mean the sale of assets to keep sufficient income to pay their bills for the next 12-18 months.
“So, there are still many challenges for farmers yet to face and everyone needs to understand that to transition agriculture successfully people need to commit for the long-haul and not expect too many quick fixes.”
