Dear Growers

We are now into the third week and appears the mill is struggling with some operational and Transport issues including locos breaking down. CANEGROWERS Herbert River are endeavouring to work with mill management to ensure communication is more forthright and transparent.

This is appearing more challenging than first anticipated.

The mill has reported that Standover quality has had an impact on rates last couple of weeks. There has been stand over CCS as low as 3s. The mill has reported that this is un-mill able.

As you are aware last week was a wet one which gave the mill an opportunity to bring forward some cleaning and maintenance work.

The next maintenance and cleaning is tentatively planned for  Tuesday 18^th July for Victoria and each Tuesday thereafter. And for Macknade it is tentatively planned for 27^th July and for each 3^rd Thursday thereafter. The mill advised that the planned loading should correspond.

The mill reported that they have taken the opportunity during the wet stop to get ahead on loco servicing, mud processing plant maintenance, evaporator cleaning (rate impact) and other routine maintenance activities.

3 locos are getting close attention from the OEM to ensure they have a reliable fleet going forward.

I have been assisting Members with incorrect CCS and have been successful in getting the right outcome and results for members. If you do need assistance with CCS adjustments due to incorrect allocation please do not hesitate to contact me.

Please ensure your harvester contractor is writing finish times on bin tickets.

Frank Scardamaglia

Manager

CANEGROWERS Herbert River

Email: frank_scardamaglia@canegrowers.com.au

Phone: 0475 818 800

Lower Herbert Water Quality Program Podcast

GreenCollar is a delivery partner of the Lower Herbert Water Quality Program. In this podcast you'll learn more about Reef Credits with Business Development Manager Bart Dryden.

Listen here

Addressing Farm Crime in Australia

One of the primary problems facing rural communities is incidents of crime that impact the function of pastoral, agricultural and aquaculture farming operations. To address this issue, the UNE Centre for Rural Criminology is undertaking a survey on farm crime in Australia.

They need valuable information from those involved in farming who have key insights into the important issues. Have your say in improving the safety and well-being of rural farming communities! Click here. 

Classifieds ads update 

Have you recently sold or found an item via CANEGROWERS Classified Ads in the magazine or online, if so, don’t forget to let us know at ads@canegrowers.com.au so we can update the listings.

Incident alert - Worker sustained fatal injuries when tractor veered over an embankment and rolled

In March 2023, a worker sustained fatal crush injuries when the tractor he was operating veered off the path over an embankment and rolled. Early investigations indicate that the worker was not wearing a seat belt. For reasons yet to be established, the tractor has veered off the path over an embankment rolling over. These findings are not yet confirmed, and investigations are continuing into the exact cause.

Read the full incident report here

Crushing Stats and Mill Production figures

The Crushing statistics including the CCS for the varieties cut for all weeks of the 2022 Season are on the CANEGROWERS Herbert River website in the members log in area. Click the link  www.herbertrivercanegrowers.com.au

To access the members area you will need to click on the Members Log in button and type your surname with the first letter been a capital and the last 4 numbers of your CANEGROWERS membership number, for e.g. Scardamaglia0305

QSL Weekly Market Update

Weekly Market Overview
Indicative ICE 11 Prices

Season AUD/MT* Weekly Change
2023 745.87 -5.91%
2024 680.30 -5.95%
2025 634.90 -1.43%
2026 606.67 +1.98%
* These figures are indicative of available ICE 11 prices as at 3 July 2023 and reflect the weighted average AUD/mt price. The prices have been adjusted to include Over-the-Counter margin fees charged by banking institutions and so may differ from daily prices quoted by the ICE 11 Exchange and/or other Marketers of Growers' Economic Interest in Sugar. Values also do not account for any adjustments resulting from local Grower-Miller pricing arrangements.

Sugar
* Overview: ICE 11 raw sugar prices continued to freefall last week, retreating 129 points over the week and mounting 7 straight sessions of losses as it approached the expiry of the July 2023 contract. The now prompt October 2023 contract traded from a high of 24.74 USc/lb on the Tuesday, down to a low of 22.28 USc/lb on the Friday.

* July 2023 Expiry: The July 2023 contract expired on Friday at 22.89 USc/lb with 412,000 tonnes of Brazilian sugar delivered to the tape. This volume was initially expected to be significantly higher before it was rumoured that a large tradehouse closed out the majority of its long position which may have triggered, or at least contributed to, last week's significant sell off.

* Brazil Harvest: The Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association, UNICA, published its report for the first half of May last week which revealed extremely high agricultural yields of 95.3 tonnes/hectare. In the two-week period 40.3 million tonnes of cane was harvested and 2.5 million tonnes of sugar was produced which is up significantly compared to last year. A total of 166 million tonnes of cane and 9.5 million tonnes of sugar have now been recorded for the 2023/24 season. The sugar mix is still tracking at maximum sugar with a 49% v 51% sugar/ethanol ratio recorded for the fortnight. In summary, the report shows Centre South Brazil is producing strong volumes of sugar which the global market desperately needs.

* Speculators: Speculators (see Jargon Buster below) reduced their net long position by 67,000 contracts in line with a 305-point sell off in the ICE 11 market for the week ending 27 June. The Commitment of Traders report published a 141,000-lot net long position which suggests speculators were well involved in the extreme sell off in the sugar market last week.

Currency
* Overview: The Australian dollar traded a fairly narrow range last week, between a high of 67.21 US cents on the Tuesday and 65.96 US cents on the Thursday in the lead up to the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) meeting and key US inflation data releases scheduled for this week.

* United States: The AUD was weaker following a revision to the US gross domestic product (GDP) in the first quarter which rose by 2.0% quarter-on-quarter, up from the initially released 1.3%. An increase in consumer spending as well as export numbers were the basis for the improvement and indicate that the Federal Reserve's effort to cool down spending had not taken full effect in Q1 2023.

* Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA): On Tuesday 4 July RBA Chairman Philip Lowe announced the official cash rate in Australia would be left unchanged at 4.1%. The decision likely a result of the May monthly CPI data release which printed at 5.6%, down from 6.8% in April, representing a significant reduction in inflation. The majority of the reduction has been attributed to the significant fall in the cost of fuel.

* China: The Aussie dollar saw some strength mid-week following an announcement by Chinese Premier Li Qiang who stated economic growth is picking up and that there is a stimulus package in the works. The Hang Seng stock market index was up almost 2% on the news with iron ore prices also seeing gains.

Jargon Buster

Who are Speculators?

Speculators in the ICE #11 market are participants who do not physically hold or want to receive sugar. Instead, they attempt to make a profit by correctly predicting price movements by buying low and selling high. Speculators are ready to buy or sell instantly on any new information and bring extra liquidity to the market.
QSL is Australia's largest GEI Sugar marketer.

To learn more about us, click here (https://www.qsl.com.au/content/about-qsl)
 

Wilmar New Apprenticeships Opened Applications for 2024 Apprenticeships.

There are 8 positions in the Herbert River district, click here for more.

CANEGROWERS Herbert River Directors

Chris Bosworth     0418 983 507      ca_ltbosworth1@bigpond.com

Steven Marbelli    0417 621 970      marbi.70@bigpond.com

Paul Marbelli         0408 180 552      Marbie08@bigpond.com

Leah Russo             0409 477 713      leahandsanto@bigpond.com

Terry Motti             0417 636 863      tezmot71@gmail.com

Sam Torrisi             0408 779 598      Torrisi5@itnq.com.au

Zenan Reinaudo    0400 762 103     mzreinaudo@bigpond.com