BEET SUGAR FOR AUSTRALIA.

Hokitika Guardian, 1 May 1920, Page 4

BEET SUGAR FOR AUSTRALIA.

! ON i EESUI/T OF ACUTE i - SHORTAGE.

SYDNEY, April II

Australia consumes on an average 200,000 tons of sugar a year. Tho nroduction of cane sugar last year—and a similar condition is,expected this year —was only about 100,000 tons. There .fore, Australia has to go into the world’s market to make good her shortage. Up to the last two or three years that did not disturb anybody except the Australian sugar growers, because the cost of production in Australia \. as high, and it was possiblo to hiiy at a favourable price in the world’s markets. But to-day the position lias completely changed. The Australian growers are receiving £3O 6s 8d for their raw sugar, (but in order to make good the 100,000 tons shortage, the Australian Government lias to pay between £SO and £BO in foreign markets ; £3O 6s 8d is nearly £9 better than • the grower has hitherto been receiving ri.rl he is now doing his best to stimulate his output, but the effect of that v : !l not be felt until next year.

AJeanwhile, the beet sugar ind istry has* come into vigorous life. Victoria has:been growing sugar beets for y sirs and'the beet sugar produced under Australian labour conditions could not compete with the Queensland cane product, lot alone the cheaply produced sugar from Java. So the industry languished 1 and not more than 1500 tons a ;vc«r i were produced. But now everything is changed. Everyone within a wide radius of the Maffra beet sugar mill is planting sugar-beet and the Victorian | Government b[y granting substantial bonuses and reduced railway freights,, is doing its utmost to establish the in- | dustry soundly before prices recede. It is being found that the growing of heet- | sugar fits in admirably with dairying, as the part of the beet rejected bv the sugar-maker forms excellent fodder for stock. The Tasmanian Government is budlv making enquiries into the possibilities of beet, and the West Australian Government is heartily co-operating with the biggest confectionery firm in the west, which is trying to establish 1-eet-grqwing on a big scale. West Austraha is the worst place of all the States in icgard. to sugar supplies, it is far fr« nr Queensland, and freights are heavy. Whenever there is a strike, its supolies are cut off. Formerly, it could Gun for supplies to the nearby Dutch Indies, but to-day Java, sugar is “away up near the sides.”

The Australian beet-sugar industry has a unique chanoe of being soundly established—and the same conditions, no doubt, will encourage those who have sc long advocated sugar-growing in Ho Waikato.