About the Sugar Industry

The Australian sugar industry is one of Australia’s largest and most important rural industries and is Queensland’s largest agricultural crop. The Queensland sugar industry produces about 35 million tonnes of sugar cane from 400,000 hectares annually.  This sugar cane crop produces approximately 5,000,000 tonnes of raw sugar, 1 million tonnes of molasses and 10 million tonnes of bagasse annually.  Approximately 85% of the raw sugar produced is exported, generating up to $1.5 billion in export earnings for Queensland. 

Sugar mills are self-sufficient in energy, burning the bagasse (which is a renewable fuel) to generate electricity and steam for factory operations.  In addition, significant quantities of electricity are exported to the state electricity network supporting Queensland’s electricity infrastructure and reducing Queensland’s greenhouse gas emissions.  The use of renewable bagasse for the production of ‘green’ energy reduces Queensland’s greenhouse gas emissions by over 1.3 million tonnes annually.

The sugar industry directly employs about 10,000 people across the growing, harvesting, milling and transport sectors.

Sugar is a major contributor to the Australian economy, underpinning the economic stability of many rural and regional communities along 2,100 km of Australia’s east coast from Mossman and the Atherton Tablelands in North Queensland to Grafton in Northern New South Wales. For every dollar generated by the industry at least three are generated in the community.