THE game of ping pong between Wilmar and QSL continued last Tuesday after the Guardian went to print.

QSL responded to Wilmar's statement made last Monday for a second time.

The sugar milling giant and the statutory single desk not-for-profit are slugging it out in the public arena, trading blow for blow, attempting to convince the grower to their own way of thinking using whatever means possible.

For Proserpine grower Andrew Auld the argument means little.

He had already signed a 2017 cane supply agreement with Wilmar and has been fortunate enough to lock in a record-high sugar price.

This week the sugar price dropped to around AUD$585 after reaching a 10-year high of around $680 a tonne in October.

Mr Auld said his reason for signing with Wilmar was based on a perceived neglect of the grower by QSL after the failed season in 2010.

"They over sold the sugar and every farmer even if you supplied all your cane had to pay QSL. My bill was $160,000 and some people had to give them half a million (dollars),” he said.

"They were told it was too wet, we are not going to get the cane off and they kept on selling because the price was good. And then when we didn't get the cane off QSL had to buy it from somewhere else at a higher price and gave us the bill.

"They had $30 million in the bank in an investment fund and they didn't touch it. They made all us farmers pay.

"When the mill went belly up (as a co-operative), QSL stopped payment to all Proserpine cane growers even though we had cane in the paddock and had a mill that could crush it.

"Now they are saying they are here for the farmers but they weren't when times were tough.

"I have no loyalty to them,” he said.

Last Wednesday Wilmar sent its third message to growers in a week.

It balanced "what QSL said” against "the reality” as Wilmar sees it.