Summary of Benchmarking Smartcane 2026 Modules 1 to 4 and ProTerra V5

ProTerra Foundation and CANEGROWERS Australia have undertaken a benchmarking exercise of ProTerra Standard V5 and the Smartcane BMP 2025 (Modules 1 to 4 from 2025-28), which was completed in February 2026. The key results are discussed below. 

It should be noted that the scope of the benchmarking exercise considered agricultural activity only, with no post-harvest related operations.

Smartcane

Smartcane is the Queensland sugarcane industry’s voluntary best practice programme. It is run by CANEGROWERS Australia, a grower-owned organisation that supports and promotes Australian sugarcane growers. 

Under the programme, the unit of certification is the farm. The programme comprises eight modules, of which only Modules 1 to 4 were considered in the benchmarking exercise.  These 4 Modules are:

  • Module 1: Soil health and nutrition management 
  • Module 2: Irrigation and drainage management 
  • Module 3: Weed, pest and disease management 
  • Module 4: People and Business 

ProTerra Standard

The ProTerra Standard has four core aims: to foster good agricultural practices; to secure the supply of sustainably produced, fully traceable, non-GMO ingredients for feed and food; to protect the environment and to promote that workers and communities are treated with dignity and respect. It is organised in principles that deploy in criteria that, in their turn, deploy in indicators. Indicators are ultimately the object of implementation by organisations. The ProTerra principles are:

  • PRINCIPLE 1: Management system, compliance with laws, international conventions and the ProTerra Standard; 
  • PRINCIPLE 2: Human rights and responsible labour policies and practices; 
  • PRINCIPLE 3: Responsible relations with workers and community; 
  • PRINCIPLE 4: Biodiversity conservation, effective environmental management and environmental services;
  • PRINCIPLE 5: No use of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs); 
  • PRINCIPLE 6: Pollution and waste management;
  • PRINCIPLE 7: Water Management;
  •  PRINCIPLE 8: Greenhouse gases and energy management; 
  • PRINCIPLE 9: Adoption of good agricultural practices, and 
  • PRINCIPLE 10: Traceability and Chain of Custody.

ProTerra Indicators are divided into two categories: core and non-core. Core indicators are those that are considered by the ProTerra Foundation as essential to mitigate the negative impacts. These indicators must be met by applicants to be granted the ProTerra Standard certification. To be ProTerra certified, organisations have to meet 80% of all indicators, in which all core indicators are included. Certification is based on a third-party audit conducted by an accredited certification body.

The ProTerra Certification is applicable to three distinct levels of operation across the food and feed production chains: Level I: Agricultural production, Level II: Transport, Storage, Traders and Dealers and Level III: Industrial Processing. 

The benchmarking exercise

ProTerra Foundation embraces mutual recognition of sustainability standards and believes that synergies help reducing costs of standard implementation and certification while reducing audit burden.  In addition, best practices for sustainability are shared through sectors and countries, with possibilities of the opening of new markets. The continuous development of standards can create safer and more sustainable working environments, which is why we welcome this joint exchange.

The benchmarking results have shown a full alignment between Smartcane and ProTerra PRINCIPLE 6: Pollution and waste management, followed by a 86% alignment of Smartcane against ProTerra PRINCIPLE 9: Adoption of good agricultural practices. Lower levels of alignment relate to topics associated with PRINCIPLE 3: Responsible relations with workers and community (approximately 42%), followed by ProTerra PRINCIPLE 1: Management system, compliance with laws, international conventions and the ProTerra Standard (60%).

The overall results indicate that a total of 17 out of 44 non-core indicators are met, while a total of 67 core indicators (out of a total of 99) are met.  

Considering that several ProTerra core requirements were not met, for a full ProTerra recognition of a Smartcane-certified farm, additional requirements must be implemented and further verified during a ProTerra audit of a Smartcane-certified operation.  Table 1 lists these additional requirements, keeping in mind that for a ProTerra Certification, 80% of the ProTerra indicators must be met, including all CORE indicators.  

Download table 1