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Cane farmer works a new angle on success
22 Aug 2003
Innisfail cane farmer Chris Phillips is not waiting for the Federal Government's bail-out or the proposed sugar levy: he's found his own solution. His cane farm has $20 million of capital investment - in fish farming. The switch has changed him from being a debt-ridden cane farmer into Australia's largest barramundi producer.
Mr Phillips, now in his 10th year of profit, ploughed up 100 hectares of cane fields and created 62 fish ponds. Each year he hatches 600,000 fingerlings and harvests 1,000 tonnes of fish. He employs 25 people and produces 70 per cent of Australia's farmed barramundi under the Barramundi Waters and King Reef brands.
Mr Phillips said he saw the writing on the wall for the cane industry 20 years ago, when cane was $30 a tonne and decreasing. He sees little future for other cane farmers. It used to be a great life, he says, but agriculture is not a level playing field for Australian farmers in a global market.
Australian Financial Review, 22/8/03.
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