Australian sugar producers call for a new approach to sectoral policy

The Australian Sugar Marketing Council (ASMC) has published its federal preliminary budget submission for 2025-26, which emphasizes the important role that sugar production can play in addressing key national issues.

This is reported by chinimandi.

The application emphasizes the need for a more active sectoral policy in response to growing global uncertainty, as international trade rules are under pressure, including recent decisions by the Indian government to resume sugar exports.

ASMC CEO Ash Salardini said Australia’s trade-dependent industries, and the workers and communities that depend on them, face growing obstacles to global trade that threaten their long-term viability.

This is no business as usual. As a sector that exports more than 80% of its output, strong industry and government responses are needed to ensure that it remains competitive in a rapidly changing global economy.

In addition to uncertainty about the fundamentals of international trade, climate change is having a profound impact on sugar communities, affecting harvesting, processing and supply chain infrastructure. Extreme weather events that once occurred once every twenty or fifty years now seem to occur every five to ten years.

The sugar industry is Queensland’s second largest agricultural exporter and the fourth largest sugar exporter in the world, providing about 23,000 jobs and contributing $4.4 billion a year to the national economy.

Tags: sugar, Australia