Daintree Bio Precinct | Far Northern Milling

Leading the way within the Australian sugar industry

Daintree Bio Precinct Ltd was formed as the parent entity to which grower investors will hold shares

It is the Board of Daintree Bio Precinct who has taken on the role of finding suitable bio-based value adding projects utilising the mill feedstock in order to secure the future for the cane industry in the Mossman and Tablelands regions.

Over the last decade there have been significant breakthroughs in the development and commercialisation of products that use sugar or sugar syrup as feedstock for products of a much higher value than what is currently received for raw sugar.

Daintree Bio Precinct is currently leading the way within the Australian sugar industry, working with several of these companies to commercialise their technologies at the Bio Precinct site adjacent Mossman Mill.

The vision of Daintree Bio Precinct is:

To align interest with growers and be able to supply long term feedstock to the proposed value adding processing facilities. This contrasts with most other cane growing areas where the mill output is controlled by parties who have a vested interest in the global sugar industry and have no incentive to divert output of their mill to higher value products or share the benefit with growers and technology providers;
To utilize existing infrastructure and supply chain which can be leveraged to deliver above market risk adjusted returns for the value adding processing facilities;
To maximise its marketing potential for the value added products especially into Asia markets
With a strong alignment between the natural characteristics of the surrounding area (world heritage marine park and world heritage rainforest) and the societal and environmental benefits of either their products or the process used to make the products Daintree Bio Precinct aims to create a circular economy in Mossman

To maximise the advantages that come from being a part of a commercial precinct that benefits from:

Shared infrastructure and services to produce lower capital and operating costs;
The ability to create technical jobs in the region due to the skilled workforce in place; and the potential to align courses at regional universities with future job requirements of the Bio Precinct.

By realigning raw sugar from a food product/commodity into a renewable feedstock for modern, sustainable, bio friendly industrial and food products, Daintree Bio Precinct will not only secure the industry for its shareholders but will also provide a job expansion and retention within the Mossman and surrounding communities.

Potential Bio Precinct Projects

For the Daintree Bio Precinct Board to reach Final Investment Decision on the projects to be established on the Bio Precinct land adjacent the Mill, a two-phase process has been developed.

Phase 1

KPMG has been engaged to undertake an options assessment on several value adding projects that Daintree Bio Precinct currently has under consideration. They have also investigated suitable additional projects which are being considered alongside the existing projects.

The Options Assessment aimed to identify the most commercially viable value adding project(s) which utilizes the outputs from the mill to underpin the financial viability of the mill going forward.

The option selection process included:

High level review of the mill’s current operating dynamics, financials and feedstocks
Broad market scan, taking into consideration projects already considered by Daintree Bio Precinct, to identify potential value adding projects and products using the mill’s feedstocks
Commercial assessment to prioritise value adding projects
Risk assessment for prioritised projects (such as biosafety considerations)
High level supply chain assessment for prioritised projects
High level demand assessment for prioritised projects

Projects short listed through the Options Assessment Process Include:

Food Ingredients and Nutraceuticals
Intermediate bio chemicals
Biogas / Energy solutions
Biofertiliser’s
Alcohols

Phase 2

In order to make an informed Final Investment Decision in relation to the Bio Precinct projects, Daintree Bio Precinct will engage a highly experienced, credible firm to lead development of a range of deliverables required for the Final Investment Decision.

Daintree Bio Precinct will seek to appoint a Project Director (and supporting team) to lead the development of a bankable business case and manage the process for Daintree Bio Precinct to progress to a Final Investment Decision.

Once complete, the Daintree Bio Precinct has the potential to be a showcase for the transition of the sugar industry from one which is under pressure due to volatile global pricing and sugar’s contribution to lifestyle diseases, to an industry that utilizes the outputs from the Mossman Mill to produce a suite of environmentally sustainable bio products which underpin the financial stability of the Mill and surrounding community.

The firm is expected to play a lead role in the design and negotiation of the end deliverables. This may include but is not limited to:

Licencing negotiations with the technology provider
Securing appropriate offtake agreements, sufficient to financially underpin the project
Identifying, negotiating and securing appropriate debt partners for the project, including the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility
Identifying, negotiating and securing appropriate equity partners for the project
Identifying, negotiating and securing an appropriate Engineering, Procurement and Construction contract for the project