The sugar industry has faced many issues over the past decade, but Sunshine Sugar remains optimistic about the future.
Fundamentally, the function of sugar and its sweetness is at the core of livening up flavours in food and beverages. But the versatility of raw sugar as a functional food is unmatched, ranging from its use in the production of medication, bioplastics, biofuels for planes, and even preserving the life of freshly cut flowers. Despite its benefits, chief executive officer of Sunshine Sugar Chris Connors gave his observations of the current landscape of the sugar industry.
“The sugar industry in Australia is going through a phase of reducing mills,” he said.
In recent years, the Australian sugar industry has faced many challenges, from extreme weather events that affect sugarcane growth to changing consumer behaviour. According to Connors, up to seven out of 30 mills have closed in the past five years. Describing the company as one of the smaller mill operators, Connors still showed optimism for Sunshine Sugar and its growth opportunities in the market.
Sunshine Sugar
Sunshine Sugar takes pride in being 100 per cent Australian-owned, operating three sugar mills and a refinery in northern NSW. The mills are located at Condong, Broadwater, and Harwood, with each playing a role in the wider supply chain, being roughly 60 to 70 km apart. Local growers supply each specific mill.
The mill at Condong houses a raw sugar plant and produces Sunshine Sugar’s direct consumption (DC) raw sugar and low Glycemic Index (GI) sugar, a product that reflects growing demand for healthier alternatives. A couple of kilometres away sits a warehouse facility, allowing for efficient storage and distribution. Broadwater is among the largest mills in the region, while Harwood not only processes raw sugar but also houses a refinery capable of producing 250,000 tonnes of refined sugar annually.
“We produce about a third of Australia’s refined sugar requirements and customers are wanting more of our Australian-owned products,” said Connors.
In partnership between NSW Sugar Milling Co-operative and Manildra Group, the refinery located at Harwood is Bonsucro-certified sustainable, a global certification system for the sugar industry that ensures production meets environmental and social standards.
The sugarcane that is crushed is locally grown by farming families in the NSW Northern Rivers. The NSW Sugar Milling Co-operative, which comprises around 500 farming families, as much as two million tonnes of harvestable cane are grown per year on a footprint of more than 30,000 hectares. Its unique ownership model ensures growers remain central to the business, strengthening the link between production, sustainability, and community.
For Connors, the key to his optimism lies in the knowledge of the overall benefits of sugarcane and sugar manufacturing. According to him, the health and sustainable advantages of sugar come from it being all-natural with no additives or preservatives. This extends to sugarcane itself as a sustainable bio-resource.
Growing the sugarcane
Spring is the golden time of the year when short sections of cane stalks, called billets, are planted. Growers use a GPS-guided mechanical planter to bury the billets in rows. From there, the natural process of photosynthesis takes over for the growth of the billets into sugarcane. Each plant can regrow after harvesting and can produce around three to four crops before being replaced. Harvesting occurs between June and December every year.
The next step is to prepare the sugarcane for milling. Excess leaf matter is burned to make cutting and processing possible. With a permit for cane fires in NSW, the leaf matter is burned before a mechanical harvester cuts the stalk at ground level, cutting them into billets that are fed into a haul-out buggy. A haul-out buggy is an infield machine that collects the cut cane and transports it to be loaded into bins that can hold up to 27 tonnes of cane before being transported to the mill via road.
Milling the billets
Once at the sugar mill, the cane is weighed before being fed through a shredder. The billets are shredded into a fibrous mass through a series of crushing mills to extract the juice. After analysing the juice’s sugar content, Connors highlighted an important aspect of sugar manufacturing. According to him, every part of the cane plant is used in the production process.
“During the processing of sugarcane the remaining fibre, called bagasse, is used in boilers to provide steam to power the mill,” he said.
This is a distinctive feature of Sunshine Sugar’s milling process making it self-sufficient for its power needs.
The extracted sugar juice goes through heating, with lime added to remove impurities. The company also recycles these impurities, which are rich in nutrients, as fertiliser for the cane fields. The clarified juice is then concentrated into a syrup and crystallised into sugar through centrifuges that spin at high speed. The sugar is then dried in rotating dryers before being stored or transported.
Refining the sugar
Brought to the refinery at Harwood, the raw sugar is mingled with syrup to soften the crystals before entering the refining process to produce clean, white sugar crystals. This is the step where any final impurities are removed before going through filters. The raw sugar’s golden colour is then taken out using ion-exchange columns, producing purified white syrup that is then dried and packed for delivery.
The refinery ensures that Sunshine Sugar is not solely reliant on raw sugar sales. By offering refined sugar and other specialty sugar and syrup products, the company provides customers with diversified products made from single-ingredient Australian-grown sugarcane.
Diversification meets smarter operations
The broader food and beverage sector is undergoing change, with health and quality at the centre of consumer expectations. Connors said that Sunshine Low GI Sugar is one of the company’s responses to provide a healthier alternative that aligns with the needs of health-conscious consumers.
Diversification is a key element of Sunshine Sugar’s strategy. By producing different types of sugar and exploring new applications for sugarcane, the company is broadening its base and reducing reliance on a single revenue stream. With pressures on smaller operators, the company had to respond to challenges through smarter and more efficient operations.
For example, demand for Sunshine Sugar’s refined sugar has seen the volume of sugar movements grow to around 700 pallets a day. To keep up with operations, it opened a warehouse and logistics facility in 2020, funded in partnership with the state and federal governments under a regional development program. Spanning 4,000 square metres, Connors said that this $9 million facility was well integrated utilising partnerships with longstanding transport companies.
The floods of 2022
Among other global challenges including the COVID-19 pandemic, weather is also a crucial element in sugar production. A single disruption across the supply chain can cause detriment to operations. Connors recalled the floods in Australia in 2022.
The floods caused damage to all three sugar mills, with Broadwater experiencing three metres of water inundation. The financial impact reached approximately $60 million, yet the company managed to restore operations in time for the crushing season. For Connors, this event showed the company’s teamwork and determination at its finest.
“It was pretty horrific,” he said. “But at the end of the day, the teams were to be commended for their outstanding efforts.”
Despite these difficulties, the company maintained strong performance and upheld commitments to customers.
Moving forward
Looking ahead, Sunshine Sugar is prioritising diversification projects to ensure a sustainable bottom line for growers and the company. While refined sugar remains a major part of the business, the company recognises the need to expand into new products and uses for sugarcane.
“Sugarcane is one of the most diverse products,” said Connors. “Many industries are looking at sustainable fuels and fibres, and we are looking into how we can develop them from sugarcane.”
Over the past 17 years at the helm of Sunshine Sugar, the company has undertaken 92 investigations into new projects. This willingness to explore and evaluate opportunities reflects its openness to innovation and collaboration, even if not every idea results in a commercial outcome. As of now, the company is committed to a disciplined strategic plan that outlines 35 projects, each with specific responsibilities, resources, and outcomes.
Whilst the sugar industry in NSW has been thriving for almost 200 years, Connors said that above all plans and strategies, a business cannot survive without a foundational culture. For him, healthy and meaningful relationships among the team and partners are what make a business successful and help it thrive.
“Even with set processes and strategies, we go through hiccups here and there – everybody does,” he said. “But at the end of the day, our strong culture and relationships have been critical to our long term success.”