Briefing paper for ISSCT Executive from the Better ...



Briefing note for ISSCT Council from the Better Sugarcane Initiative Steering Committee

3 March 2006

The purpose of this briefing note is to inform members of the ISSCT Council of the purpose and progress of the Better Sugarcane Initiative (BSI) and to seek the following:

1) ISSCT Executive Committee and Council's support in principle for the work of BSI;

2) To ascertain the interest of the ISSCT Executive Committee and Council in officially launching the BSI at the ISSCT Congress in 2007;

3) ISSCT input into the proposed processes of consultation of BSI;

4) Advice from ISSCT Executive Committee and Council on the further development of the BSI; particularly suggestions for leaders and members of technical working groups;

5) To clarify any misunderstandings that may have arisen about BSI among ISSCT Executive Committee and Council member and their peers.

The intention of engaging with the sugar cane industry to establish minimum and measurably improved social and environmental performance with respect to key impacts was first expressed to ISSCT through contact with Jean-Claude Autrey (then ISSCT Chairman) in November 2004, and Richard Perkins’ constructive participation the meetings of the Agronomy Section and Management Forum at the ISSCT Congress in Guatemala in January/February 2005.

Sugar cane is one of a number of global commodities identified by the International Finance Corporation or IFC (the private sector lending arm of the World Bank) and WWF to work with in a proactive way to adopt measurable indicators of performance with regard to key social and environmental impacts of commodity production, others include cotton, salmon, soy, and palm oil.

We would like to work with the sugar cane industry to help it make profits, maintain the

resource, reduce off-site impacts to acceptable levels and achieve acceptable levels of social equity. Later in this paper we will give a brief outline of how this has been achieved in a leading example to date.

Work on sugar cane has gathered momentum from the first meeting in London in June when 34, producers, bankers, refiners, researchers, brokers, major users of sugar, Social NGOs and trade unionists along with the conveners WWF and IFC, met and decided to proceed with the implementation of a Better Sugarcane Initiative (BSI). The goals and objectives of BSI are annexed and can be found at agriculture . The minutes of this first meeting are publicly available on line at agriculture under a publications sub-section.

A smaller group, but with a broad cross-section of interests, met in January 2006 to form a Steering Committee (SC) and to decide the way forward. A communication and minutes of this meeting will be made publicly available and are provided as annexes to this briefing. That meeting nominated a Steering Committee of 7 with a further 4 places being held open for strategic inclusion to give the SC the broadest possible coverage of global sugar cane interests.

Technical Working Groups (TWG) will be formed around 3 broad themes:

Environment /Agronomy, Community/Social and Mill /Co-products.

As most of the expertise we are looking for in two of the three themes does reside, or has resided, in the membership of the ISSCT, a close working relationship with your membership will be essential if we are to achieve the best possible outcomes for the global sugar cane industry.

We believe there are significant advantages to BSI and to ISSCT from close collaboration, while maintaining separate institutional status. BSI with a Steering Committee drawn from researchers, buyers, bankers, growers, environmentalists and social groups will command confidence from a wider range of stakeholders than could ISSCT alone. Collaboration with ISSCT can ensure technical competence in BSI's work. We also think that the BSI will provide a number of advantages for producers and millers as well as its primary target audiences: buyers of sugarcane products and investors in sugar cane production and processing.

Benefits to the producer

1. By adopting Better Management Practices producers in South Africa and Australia have been able to achieve improved profitability and improved environmental performance. One case study has shown:

a. Off-site impacts of heavy metals, pesticides and nutrients were reduced by 80%

b. They produced much more cane. Increase in production of 80%

c. Inputs to produce the crop were reduced by 25 %.

d. Cost of producing each ton of cane was reduced by 50%.

The steering committee will call on this and other case studies to show global producers that improving their social and environmental performance can put more money in their pockets.

Benefits to the Miller/refiner

A guaranteed of a more consistent, sustainable production with farm viability increased.

A consistent, quality product.

A more ready acceptance in the market place for BSI sugar.

BSI will also cover other products produced from sugar cane. This is why we have called the initiative a sugarcane initiative, rather than a sugar initiative.

The technical working groups will be established during the mid part of 2006 with a report back to the SC by mid 2007, a launch of the BSI processes at, or to coincide with, the ISSCT meeting in Durban in July /August 2007.

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