Six years on, Mrs Salvetti said that while Mackay Sugar would not longer be part of the picture, the principles remained the same. When Tableland Canegrowers deputy chair Maryann Salvetti controversially brokered a cane supply deal to send cane 100 kilometres to Mossman after a dispute about sugar marketing with the Thai-owned Tableland mill, it was considered by many to be a risky roll of the dice. The decision to sell Mossman Mill last year was a bitter pill to swallow for both Mossman and Tableland growers, given how much was invested in the relationship with Mackay Sugar. "We need in the vicinity of probably $150 million, and the sale of that mill is not going to be anywhere near that amount of money," Mr Bowman said. Mackay Sugar said it was happy to have reached an agreement which would return control of Mossman Mill to growers and enable the board to concentrate on improving milling performance closer to home.īut those assurances have fallen flat with growers who have suffered the brunt of breakdowns and poor reliability. "If there is a prospective buyer, who knows, they might want Mossman Mill - for the geographic side of it - to be part of the business and they could be shooting us all in the foot by selling it."
Grower Faron Bowman (right) says Mackay Sugar could be "shooting us all in the foot" by selling Mossman. "We have put a lot of money into Mossman Mill over the years and we have actually made no money out of it," Mr Bowman said.
Grower Faron Bowman said he feared the company was now compounding a bad decision to buy the mill, by selling it prematurely. Many Mackay shareholders have criticised the 2012 acquisition of Mossman Mill, arguing the $25 million investment would have been better spent on its three existing factories in the Mackay region. Shareholders critical of original purchase He said with the global sugar price languishing lower than the cost of production, no milling company anywhere in the world was making money but that was not necessarily a disincentive for investors given the cyclical nature of the global markets. "So far, the process has gone pretty well and we've had very good interest given the commitment these groups have put in." "They're serious investors, they're big companies and they're putting a lot of resources behind it," Mr Day said. He refused to comment on specific buyers but said the intended sale of the Mossman mill in far north Queensland will have no bearing on the outcome. Mr Day admitted the company could have communicated better with its grower shareholders, as the company continued to work with a number of interested parties from 'around the world' on a range of investment options. In that tumultuous period, the company lost its CEO and chairman of the board, with both roles currently being performed by Mark Day. Growers have repeatedly complained of being 'kept in the dark' about the details of those negotiations. Speculation is rife a Brazilian-based company may be about to step into the void, ending an 18-month search for a new owner or equity partner. Mackay Sugar threw an economic lifeline to growers when it purchased the Mossman Mill six years ago.
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