The Ashes may have soured ties between Australia and the UK last week but Aussie sugar is set to ease tensions with a sweet deal.
The first shipment of raw sugar exported to the United Kingdom under the new Australia-UK free trade agreement is being loaded in Townsville this week.
The value of Australian sugar exports to the UK is now expected to reap $74 million per year, from nothing in the past five years.
Queensland Sugar Limited said the reduced tariffs on Australian sugar would make the UK a commercially viable option for Australian exporters.
"This is really exciting, that for the first time since the 1970s we're back in force, sending sugar to the UK market," CEO Greg Beashel said.
"We've effectively been locked out of the UK market since the 1970s.
"We've had a very, very small quota into the EU but much less than a shipment size.
"There was a 98 euro per tonne tariff on our quota of sugar from Australia, which effectively made it impossible to send sugar to the UK."
From 2031 on the tariff-free export quota to the UK will be unlimited with Australian sugar accounting for 30 per cent of UK imports.
'They Want Good Sugar'
Before the UK joined the precursor to the European Union, the European Economic Community (EEC), in 1973 it was a major market for Australian sugar, taking about a third of all Australian sugar exports.
But for decades Australian sugar exports to the UK have faced relatively high tariffs, resulting in little to no exported sugar in the past decade.
Since 2017, no sugar has been exported to there.
But the sugar industry said the agreement only happened because of Australia's premium product.
"Why we got this free trade agreement is because of our sustainability credentials," Owen Menkens, chair of Canegrowers said. "The buyers in the UK, Tate and Lyle Sugar, came knocking on our door which is different from what happened 50 years ago when they walked away from us.”
"The UK farmers aren't real happy about it but if they're going to allow any sugar in they want to have good sugar," he said.
Market Diversification
Mr Menkens says the price the UK is willing to pay for Australian sugar will have to be globally competitive.
"Obviously we've got markets in Asia which are closer and cheaper to get to so to send a ship all the way to the UK, it has to be worthwhile," he said.
"It means a new market and a premium market."
Queensland Sugar Limited says the free-trade agreement comes as Australia's second largest agricultural export seeks to diversify its markets.
"This just opens up another market for us where we can be competitive and allows for market diversification," Mr Beashel said.