Alan Winney, chairman of Queensland Sugar Limited (QSL), which is responsible for more than 90 per cent of Australia’s sugar exports, delivered this assessment while opening the 32nd annual Australian Society of Sugar Cane Technologists (ASSCT) Conference in Bundaberg this week.

In a program heavy on technical and scientific detail, Mr Winney’s frank yet optimistic speech delivered the message that Australia needed to broaden its sugar interests in order to ensure the longevity of the industry.

“It’s all about working together, we are here to grow the whole industry,” Mr Winney said.

In the face of relatively stagnant yields and falling export figures, he questioned why there were not new sugar areas being explored and opened up, even suggesting the Bowen Basin held potential.

But Mr Winney said there had been positive moves largely driven by younger cane growers such as locking in long-term pricing strategies.

He also said genetically modified cane would need serious consideration with research highlighting its potential for increased yields.

Other speakers on the program, including international guests, presented the latest figures and research results on high performance cane varieties.

The four-day program held a theme of “industry impacts of biotechnology now and in the future”.

ASSCT president Mike Cox used his address to encourage a bold approach to new breakthroughs in terms of varieties and growing techniques, urging delegates to view research as an investment, not a cost.

In recent years, QSL has focussed heavily on selling into the East Asia market where there continues to be strong demand, assisted with the apparent lack of consistency from other major world sugar suppliers such as India and Brazil, whose crops are largely weather dependent.

Mr Winney said QSL had also tried to sell sugar into the “sleeping giant”, China.

An aspect many within the industry may have trouble taking hold of, according to Mr Winney, is the increasing internationalisation of the Australian sugar industry, with some of the big players already owned by foreign parent companies.

“We’ll be dealing with new people, new partners, in many cases people from overseas with different cultures and different ways of doing business to what, traditionally, the sugar industry has enlisted,” he said.