Summary

This project will test a pilot alternative sugarcane processing facility in Mackay. The demonstration plant will be used to separate the sugarcane plant and produce research samples, to develop a variety of high-value products, together with other necessary ancillary systems and equipment.

The CRCNA’s investment will fund operational activities like the hiring of equipment and laboratories, freight and carriage for cane and for general research  activities – not to build the semi-commercial facility, as that will come if this pilot phase proved successful.

Expected outcomes

Townsend Industries have identified a portfolio of unique products of high potential value, margin and significant market demand which will provide diversification opportunities along the sugarcane value chain, including producers, harvesting contractors, millers, marketers and in-direct suppliers.

The flow on impacts of this diversification shift in the sugarcane industry are potentially dramatic in terms of employment and wealth generation for the Mackay region and sugarcane production areas throughout northern Australia. The project does not wish to assign actual figures on the scale of this impact until the positive results of this project are realised, and the implications worked through.

The direct and immediate impact of the results from this project will be the direction and speed of the next stage of the development of the Townsend Industries alternative sugarcane processing facility.