Time to bring Wilmar into line

7 FEBRUARY 2017: IT’S time for the government to step in and resolve the sugar marketing dispute with a mandatory code of practice for the sugar industry. Wilmar has had more than enough time to do the right thing of their own free will and it’s time the government stepped in to stop the Singaporean-owned miller from bullying farmers. Wilmar had given assurances at the start of December that the issue would be resolved “in two weeks”. Two weeks came and went and nothing. Now two months have come and gone and there is still no significant movement on the key issues. Every other miller managed to negotiate agreements and get on with the job so the Queensland legislation is workable if the miller wants to work with it. Wilmar has delayed offering agreements in the hope that a Federal Labor government would legislate or act to avoid compliance with Queensland’s Choice in Sugar Marketing law. Now Wilmar is delaying negotiations with QSL over an on-supply agreement, knowing farmers can’t have any choice other than Wilmar until the on-supply agreement is in place. Farmers are already missing the opportunity to forward price their crop and lock in record high world sugar prices. Now the crush is due to start in just four months and Wilmar is hoping farmers will get desperate and sign whatever the miller puts in front of them. The alternative is no harvesting because it is illegal to send cane to a mill without a cane supply agreement in place.The sugar marketing dispute is putting the entire economy at risk in the Burdekin, where Wilmar owns all the mills and also the other districts, such as Proserpine and Sarina, where Wilmar owns the only mill. A code of conduct for the sugar industry was drafted when this issue first endangered the industry but the government wanted to see the dispute resolved between the parties. The point has now come where the government will be forced to act by legislating that mandatory code of conduct or risk losing an entire industry in North Queensland.