LETTER to the Editor - Congratulations cane growers!

LETTER to the Editor - Congratulations cane growers!

Congratulations cane growers!

I write to congratulate Queensland’s Smartcane BMP accredited sugarcane growers.

You are being acknowledged internationally as being the best. The world is recognising your innovation and dedication to being sustainable, productive and profitable.
Coca-Cola Amatil has recently announced that all its sugar contracts in the Australia region until 2021 will be for Smartcane BMP or Bonsucro product.

This is no small feat! They went through our program with a fine-tooth comb and agreed that it meets their global sustainability goals, goals driven by consumer demand.
This follows Smartcane BMP achieving alignment with Bonsucro, the main international sustainability standard for sugar.

It is all testament to the rigour of our industry-developed and Queensland Government supported program, Smartcane BMP. It is recognition of the fact that the program is scientifically verified and accredited growers have been audited by an independent person.

The more accredited growers we have, the stronger our position in the market as sustainable suppliers. It is your commitment that helps CANEGROWERS pursue this recognition.  We know many more farmers already operate at or above our BMP standard and we want to celebrate you all.

Across the globe, growers in other countries and sugar users are wanting to know about and recognise what we are doing.

Our CANEGROWERS Chairman Paul Schembri has outlined Smartcane BMP to the World Association of Beet and Cane Growers and the International Sugar Organisation.
Recently I was a guest of the American Sugar Refiners Association to explain to them the sustainability guarantees our program could offer their market.

This week CANEGROWERS has been represented in Thailand at a Bonsucro gathering where our CANEGROWERS website feature of farm stories, Cane to Coast, has won a Bonsucro Inspire Award for Excellence in Sugarcane Sustainability Communications.

Cane growers, you have achieved this. You have done this voluntarily and with your eyes on the future of the Australian sugar industry and the environment in which you live and work, including the Great Barrier Reef.

I am incredibly proud of all of you.

That is why CANEGROWERS will continue to oppose the Queensland Government’s move to impose more regulations on the industry – regulations which will add red tape to your busy lives, restrict your business expansion and innovation and expose your business dealings to bureaucratic scrutiny, all with no guarantees of benefit to the Reef.

As the parliamentary process towards increased industry regulation gets underway, CANEGROWERS will be ensuring that all Members of Parliament know what the world sugar industry already recognises – that you are ensuring your industry has a sustainable future.

Dan Galligan
CANEGROWERS CEO

15 March 2019

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