Sustainable Sugar
Securing the sustainability credentials of Queensland raw sugar
CANEGROWERS continues to position the industry to meet the emerging demands for sugarcane production that is certified as meeting standards for environmental and social sustainability. These demands arise from:
- Demand for sustainably produced raw sugar in certain markets. While this demand currently represents a relatively small tonnage, it is expected to grow steadily.
- Proposed mandatory reporting by businesses of their financial exposure to climate risk, which will include their own emissions and those of their suppliers and customers.
- Expected pressure on financial institutions and other services to favour customers that can demonstrate their environmental and social sustainability.
Key areas of work:
CANEGROWERS sees the industry-led best management practice program, Smartcane BMP, as the preeminent sustainability program and certification standard for Australian sugarcane production. Smartcane BMP meets the needs of local and global sugar stakeholders and continues to position the industry as a global leader on sustainable sugarcane agriculture.
CANEGROWERS promotes and supports grower participation and accreditation in the program. Through accreditation growers can demonstrate the sustainability credentials of their individual businesses, while also contributing to the industry's overall sustainability goals.
Smartcane BMP is administered by CANEGROWERS with funding support from the Queensland Government. The program has been acknowledged by international sugar sustainability gatekeepers Bonsucro and VIVE as meeting their sustainability criteria. It is also a central pillar of the industry's diversification and trade strategies.
CANEGROWERS ensures the program is fit for purpose, including:
- Certification for indicators of social sustainability (e.g. labour management, WH&S)
- Meeting and exceeding the sustainability frameworks of the supply chain, the financial sector, and other key stakeholders
Enhancing the traceability of sustainably grown Australian sugar to improve access to international markets using blockchain technology has concluded.
CANEGROWERS worked with KPMG Australia to prototype and develop the sugarcane traceability platform using blockchain technology and mass balance calculations to trace sustainable sugar entering the supply chain from Australia.
On 18 November 2022, the first shipment of fully traceable, sustainably produced raw sugar was loaded for export at the Port of Townsville. The 25,000 tonne shipment linked sugar produced from sugarcane grown by Smartcane BMP accredited growers to a buyer in South Korea and provided traceability from the bulk sugar terminal to the customer. Future opportunities for the platform include carbon markets, sustainable finance and supporting the ESG needs across the supply chain.
What is Mass Balance?
Mass balance is a concept used in sustainable sourcing and traceability to ensure the responsible production and trade of commodities. It refers to the tracking and accounting of raw materials throughout the supply chain, from their origin to the final product. Mass balance is one of the more popular traceability models for bulk commodities such as raw sugar because it enables organisations to make certification claims without significant changes to physical infrastructure or processes.
Mass balance in sugar
Mass balance allows for certified and non-certified ingredients to become mixed during the manufacturing and shipping processes. Mass balance models do not require physical separation of certified and non-certified product. Instead, mass balance models ensure inputs and outputs of certified versus non-certified products are reconciled by volume.
A traceability platform traces the sugarcane, raw sugar and the Smartcane BMP certification attached to the raw sugar across the Queensland sugar supply chain. Raw sugar made from sugarcane certified by Smartcane BMP can be co-mingled with the raw sugar made at the mill, stored at the sugar terminal and exported in the ship. The volume of raw sugar at each of these locations can be reconciled as a percentage of certified Smartcane sugar and non-certified sugar.
For example, if we had 100,000 tonnes of raw sugar and 40% of that was certified, then using the mass balance methodology, 40,000 tonnes is sustainably produced.
CANEGROWERS, together with Sugar Research Australia, is developing the capacity to report the sustainability profile of growers in each region, including trends in emissions intensities. Work in this area has already revealed that growers in the Smartcane BMP program have already, on average, reduced their emissions intensity to below 2005 levels.
