Central Queensland cattle producers are set for more choice with investment secured to build a meat processing plant in Emerald.
The Central Highlands Regional Council is partnering with a consortium of investors to build the $80-odd million plant, which plans to process 450 head of cattle per shift and and employ around 200 people.
Consortium representative Andrew Gatenby, Channel Capital, said the next 12 months would be spent getting state and local government approvals and building was planned by the end of next year or early 2017.
“The supply shortage is weighing on our minds,” he said, “but what we are looking to have a fair proportion underwritten with suppliers.”
The consortium will be responsible for the design, construction and operation of the plant and will engage with potential funding partners and local producers to establish and underwrite the throughput at the facility.
“It will probably be around 2019 when we are rolling out so by the time we step into the market we should be coming out of the worst of it.”
The plant plans to source half its cattle from the Central Highlands, which is home to about 3 million head, with a quarter from the Isaac region and the rest from shires including Barcaldine, Barcoo, Blackall-Tambo and Longreach.
While a large proportion of cattle from the region would continue to go to Biloela and Rockhampton for processing, Mr Gatenby said the Emerald plant would more likely impact cattle destined for the south-east corner.
“This is a strong beef area, so we need to garner that, and on top of that you have reduced freight and diesel costs.
“A few months ago there was a lot of talk about beef roads and the costs to get those upgraded, so we are working with council to ensure we have strong transport links,” Mr Gatenby said.
The plant would work with the rail network – with the potential to get cattle from inland as far as Winton - and meat would be packed in containers and transported to port.
Feedback from producers had been positive but the trick now was to turn that into hard numbers.
“We have a certain volume locked in and we are hoping to broaden that from what we have contracted to local suppliers. So the challenge is to lock in more producers.”
The processing plant plans to supply both the domestic and export market, and although it will not do service kills like Casino, producers with equity in the business will have the ability to kill their own.
“From our point of view, we have council on side and we want to see what support we can get from the state and federal governments around infrastructure.”
The council floated a proposal to establish a meat processing plant early this year, calling for expressions of interest from potential investors to coincide with the Beef 2015 in Rockhampton.
Central Highlands Mayor Peter Maguire said the investment appetite was keen and interest came from domestic and international quarters.
“This region needs to embrace ideas and initiative to drive growth in the agricultural sector and we’ve been more than fortunate to find a partnering company that values the family farm, the environment and the benefits of regional diversification,” Cr Maguire said.
“It’s a win all round.”
