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Outline
Sugar-industry situation Organic sugarcane growing in Australian industry reform Challenges and solutions in organic canegrowing Sustainability implications of organic canegrowing
2100 km 500 000 ha cane land 5 Mt sugar EUR 1000 million value
Sugar marketing
Cane growing
Cane harvesting
Material flow Financial flow Environmental impact
Cane milling
Cane transport
Lack of integration along supply chain Rigid segmentation in supply chain by financial interest and other objectives
Bulk handling
Food manufacturing Shipping - export
No concept of a customeroriented value chain pulling together and acting as a single profit centre
Increasing competition
- revolutionary changes in Brazil in the 1990s result in increased production and exports
Domestic squeeze
- pressure over environmental performance by society - declining government sympathy for an industry accustomed to regular financial assistance
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Unsustainable practices
- cane monoculture farming practice results in yield decline - financial losses since the late 1990s (bad weather, but also loss of international competitiveness)
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by-products
The conventional sugar industry is not interested Organic farmers are forced to manage the supply chain
Necessity of a customeroriented value chain that acts as a single profit centre
Domestic retail
Food manufacturing
A grass-roots initiative
- despite general industry indifference and derision - no external support by government or industry - no proven technologies to use (most intensive tropical field-crop enterprise without agrochemicals!)
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The unexpected
- having to manage the whole supply chain, including cane processing and sugar marketing - relations with the sugar mills a source of conflict - regional approaches to marketing relate to social differences between the two case-study regions (age, background, farm size, entrepreneurial spirit)
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Off farm
- analytical method: Life-Cycle Assessment - increased mechanical weed control causes higher CO2 and particulate emissions - better N retention reduces nitrous emissions to air - no data on leaching, but expect reduced water pollution
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Conclusions
Organic cane - a promising innovation
- made possible by motivated, entrepreneurial and polymath farmers - improved sustainability of farm finances and resource base in the long run, at a short-term cost