Cutting The Cane: With Grower Paul Marbelli

Photo credit: Victoria Velton

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By Victoria Velton

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Welcome to the Cutting The Cane, a column where we have a chat with those supporting the backbone of the local economy: the farmers behind the sugar. This week third generation grower Paul Marbelli answered our questions about the 2026 season.

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What stage is your paddock at now?

I’m currently sitting at around 70 per cent harvested for this season. We had an early finish to planting this year and there’s still good moisture holding in our ratoon crops too.

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How are you feeling about the crop this season?

At Macknade, the weather conditions have generally been favourable.  Our crop has been a little down on the original estimate for yield.  However, this has been offset by higher sugar results, so at the end of the day this will probably balance out to achieve close to estimate for overall tonnes of sugar.

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How do you expect this year’s season will impact the next?

A big concern I’ve had this year has been the cost of inputs, particularly fuel and fertiliser.  There was a lot of focus on this before the season started. We knew that those costs would be high and profits would take a hit as a result. I was also concerned about supply but a positive is that we haven’t seen that issue in our region. Fuel and fertilisers have been available when needed, so we could continue to operate as normal. Whether this continues to be a challenge next year as well, well time will tell.  But costs overall remain a challenge.

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What do people who aren’t from the cane industry probably not realise about harvest season?

There is often a lot of discussion about the start and length of the season and when the right time is for this to happen. It’s quite a complex issue as what might be right for one area, may not be right for another. Take this year for example: we’ve had a very extended period of wet that has impacted growers in the Western regions. Harvesting didn’t start in those areas until July, and some are still trying to finish planting. Whereas there are other areas where growers are needing to irrigate their crops because of how dry it is. It just goes to show the vast differences that we can experience in the Herbert.

Ultimately, everyone – growers, harvesting contractors and millers, want to get the crop harvested at the best time when sugar is at the highest. Right now, it looks like the season will wrap up in early November, which will be good to see provided everyone can get their crop harvested. We’ve seen solid performance in our two mills but some bottlenecks in transport which have impacted cane supply. It’s always something to keep a close eye on to ensure that we can end the season on a good note for the whole community.

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Looking ahead to the rest of the season, what are the biggest factors that will determine how it finishes?

I’m feeling good about the rest of the season. If the weather can continue to hold and mill performance continues then we will remain on track to finish, before you typically see the CCS (sugar) drop away.

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