Sugar farmers in Australia have given a lukewarm reaction to details of the Federal and State Government industry assistance package intended to shore up their sector.
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The A$150m (US$81.5m) package sees the State Government contribute $30m towards new grants and subsidised loans, while the Commonwealth is donating some $120m. Some of this money will be given to farmers in the form of exit payments as they quit the sugar farming sector.
Queensland Primary Industries Minister Henry Palaszczuk said the changes in the sugar industry are similar to the deregulation of the dairy industry, but cane farmers are in a better position than their counterparts in the dairy sector as their debt levels are lower.
Chairman of the cane growers’ organisation, Jim Pedersen, criticised the make-up of the assistance package, saying that farmers cannot afford to take out more loans, even at low interest rates. He called the package “an enormous anticlimax which fails to address the urgent needs of sugar regions and which has the potential to create as many problems as its solves.”
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