AGRICULTURE : Farmers call for action on sugar crisis*

As a sign of the serious crisis in the sugar industry, soon locally manufactured cane harvesters and components may no longer exist in Australia.In the 1980s, the sugar cane industry used to buy about 300 new harvesters annually. In the 1990s, that dropped to about 160 sales per annum. Over the past six years, sales averaged 25 annually. In 2003, only 17 new harvesters were sold.Austoft has been the only domestic manufacturer of harvesters. It used to employ around 1,100 people on three shifts a…

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