QCAR’s Board has requested a meeting with Singapore-based Wilmar CEO Kuok Khoon Hong to address significant concerns as farmers call for legal action against the company.

QCAR Chairman Christian Lago, in his letter to Mr Hong, said QCAR was compelled to express concerns over the “troubling state” and performance declines at Wilmar’s sugarcane processing facilities, as well as the eroded confidence in Wilmar’s Australian management team.

Mr Lago reminded Mr Kuok that QCAR’s colleagues had “reached out in good faith” to him in December 2022 to urge his personal involvement, but in respecting his preference for Wilmar’s Australian management team to handle the matter, QCAR representatives “engaged in a process that we believed was designed to address our concerns”.

“In light of the current turmoil surrounding your Australian investments, we are reaching out once more to urge you to take decisive action as Chairman and CEO,” Mr Lago wrote on Friday, 17 January 2025, hours before Wilmar officially ceased the 2024 crushing season.

Mr Lago wrote the season was “exceptionally disappointing” with losses “so severe they are difficult to confront” as he acknowledged Mr Kuok was undoubtedly aware of the economic ramifications from extended harvests.

He told Mr Kuok that QCAR questioned Wilmar’s Australian management team’s handling of the industrial action in 2024 which profoundly impacted the entire Australian sugarcane sector and “posed significant challenges to Wilmar’s operations, reputation, and profitability”.

“We strongly urged your Australian management team to … approach this situation with the seriousness it deserve(d),” Mr Lago wrote, adding its actions had tarnished the reputation of Wilmar and the Australian sugarcane industry, and led to “extremely low morale” among its milling workforces.