Another wave of redundancies which came into force at the end of April were part of the company’s 100 job losses announced in November 2019. This was a result of the small harvest.
The 2019 rice crop was the second lowest recorded by the company at 54,000 tonnes.
By the end of the latest 100 job cuts, the total number of job losses will reach about 230 positions since November 2018.
And more workers are expected to leave by the end of this month.
‘‘In November 2019 SunRice announced that, due to the small plantings for the 2020 rice crop, there would be a further 100 job losses across its Riverina operations in early 2020,’’ a spokesperson said.
‘‘In line with this original announcement, on April 30, 2020, a number of these Deniliquin-based employees departed the business.
‘‘The balance of employees will exit on May 29, 2020. These are not new redundancies, they are part of those announced in November 2019.’’
The spokesperson said a combination of drought, high water prices, low water availability and continued extremely low rice production at its Riverina facilities has impacted the number of employees they can sustain. However they have maintained a core group of employees across their operations in Deniliquin.
‘‘In recent months, changes to consumer shopping patterns associated with COVID-19 have led to a significant increase in demand for SunRice products,’’ the spokesperson said.
‘‘While in the short term this has meant increased production across SunRice’s facilities in Deniliquin and Leeton, it has meant that remaining supplies of Australian rice are being processed more quickly than was originally anticipated.
‘‘If the increased demand trajectory is maintained, this could mean that Australian rice supplies are exhausted prior to the end of the year. However, SunRice has recently seen demand start to ease from the COVID-19 driven highs with forecast volumes returning to more normalised levels and volumes, at this stage.
‘‘The ongoing impact of COVID-19 remains uncertain and fluid, however we are revising our milling and manufacturing plans in light of the change in forecast demand,’’ the spokesperson said.
SunRice is currently working through planning for the 2021 crop, which will be influenced by changes to water availability, water prices and seasonal conditions ahead of the planting window in October.
There has been a wet start to winter, and with the seasonal conditions outlook looking favourable, SunRice says it is optimistic of greater inflows to storages ahead of the planting window.
But for employment to increase across their Riverina operations, there needs to be a significant increase in rice production.
‘‘For this (increase in rice production) to occur, there needs to be significant improvement to water availability for annual crop production ahead of the October 2020 rice planting window.
‘‘SunRice is continuing to actively engage with the NSW and Commonwealth Governments in a bid to increase availability of water for annual irrigation, including rice, in the southern Murray-Darling Basin.
‘‘We remain committed, as always, to communicating with our employees if and when any decisions are made and providing as much notice as possible of any changes to operational requirements,’’ the spokesperson said.
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