A $260 million high-tech abattoir with its own renewable energy facility in central Queensland has been given the go ahead by the state government and will be the first of its kind in Australia.
Queensland’s independent Coordinator-General approved the development application for Asia Pacific Agri-Corp’s project, which will include 95 hectares of solar panels and an on-site 33 megawatt hydrogen plant.
Based at the Euroa Homestead on the Gladstone-Mt Larcom Road in the Gladstone State Development Area, the facility will will be capable of processing 2400 head of cattle a day.
APAC’s Leo Neil-Ballantine, Galloway Plains, Calliope, said they wanted to make people aware that there was no intention to jump out of the box at 2400 head a day.
“We put that capacity in there for the long term, but the actual starting figure is only going to be around 600 head a day,” he said.
Mr Neil-Ballantine said discussions with other graziers in the region highlighted the opportunity for a kill facility.
“For one reason or another, there was a lot of talk about value adding and we were well and truly aware that there was a processing plant in Gladstone before,” he said.
“Doing the figures on the numbers in central Queensland, having the highest cattle numbers of any region in Australia, and then Gladstone's location to that proximity of cattle, we thought it would be a good idea to look at a processing plant.”
Mr Neil-Ballantine said the project was not about going into competition with other processors in the region, rather, doing their own thing to make the supply chain more efficient for all involved.
“We believe there are other ways that processing can be done and it's not about jumping up out of the boxes and trying to run everyone out of town and getting all the cattle in Queensland to come to our plant,” he said.
The project is set to deliver 308 construction jobs and 335 operational jobs, and Minister for Agricultural Industry Development, Mark Furner said the development stood to benefit local farmers.
“The abattoir, processing, packing and export facility is proposed to incorporate the latest and most advanced technologies used in meat processing plants, including the incorporation of robotic systems,” he said.
“These technologies will enable the Asia Pacific Agri-Corp to adopt an innovative paddock to market supply chain arrangements, sourcing cattle directly from farmers and tracing product to the market.”
APAC will next undertake detailed design prior to starting construction, which is expected to commence around May 2019 subject to subsequent approvals, and the facility is anticipated to be operational by 2021.
