According to Shan Goodwin, molasses, sold directly from the three sugar mills on the North Coast, now cost $42 for a 44-gallon drum, well up from the season’s opening price of $30, reported The Land, (27/9/2007, p.27).
Molasses as stock feed: The NSW Sugar Milling Co-operative sells 90pc of its molasses to industrial users, stockfeed manufacturers and agricultural supply stores and the rest direct to local cattle producers. Brandon Molasses, based in Erskineville, Sydney, which resells about 1400 tonnes of molasses a year and is getting all its supply from North Queensland.
$260 a tonne to land it in Sydney: General manager, Jack Brightwell, said it was costing the company $260 a tonne to land it in Sydney, which was double the cost of this time last year.
Molasses gap: Manufacturers of the molasses-based liquid supplement Anipro, Queensland-based Performance Feeds, was left with no molasses for a short period this winter. However, general manager Bill James, Toowoomba, said the 5000 to 8000 tonnes of Anipro sold in NSW each year was never at risk owing to stored product. The company gets all its molasses from North Queensland but increased demand from NSW and Victorian contractors, combined with unprecedented rain that had affected the northern cane crush last year, had hit Queensland supplies as well.
The Land, 27/9/2007, p. 27