Alternative Products
Issues
Diversification of income is a vital strategy for the sustainability of the industry by reducing our reliance on the world sugar market and increasing industry income. Sugarcane is a crop with one of the highest rates of conversion of sunlight into biomass and will play a major role as a feedstock in any industry based on fermentation of biomass.
Diversification of industry income into ethanol and other fermentation products should provide the Australian community with a number of benefits including:
- Economically stable, vibrant, diversified regional communities
- Improvement in air quality through use of ethanol in petrol
- Substitution of a stable source of locally produced fuel for imported products
- Use of renewable feedstocks for fuel, reducing dependence on limited fossil fuels and reducing contributions to the greenhouse effect.
Diversion of significant areas from sugar cane production across a region could threaten mill viability. However, diversification of crops on spare land, marginal land and fallow does not.
Objective
In order to increase industry income and reduce risk a significant proportion of the income stream from sugar cane should come from ethanol and fermentation products and other crops grown on spare, marginal and fallow land.
Policies
- Support for activities that improve consumers’ acceptance of ethanol as a safe, viable component of the fuel supply.
- Support for programs to encourage diversification of on farm production on spare land, marginal and fallow
- Support for research and technology development to improve the efficiency of production of sugarcane biomass and the conversion of this biomass to ethanol and other fermentation products
- Support for government action to recognise the community benefits of a biofuels industry through appropriate taxation and incentive arrangements that encourage investment in fuel ethanol production within a current time frame, which should include the adoption of a mandate for inclusion of biofuels in the fuel supply
- Support for actions that promote grower ownership of ethanol and fermentation industries
- Support for proper recognition of the value of sugarcane when used as a feedstock for ethanol and other fermentation industries.
