A partnership between two well-known Queensland agricultural and food businesses, one a leviathan company and the other a popular jerky brand, will manufacture dehydrated meat products for the growing pet and human snack markets in the Toowoomba region.
Australia's largest pork producer, SunPork, and the Mighty Good Food Group, home to family business Jim's Jerky, have jointly invested in Temba Meats to meet the growing demand for pet treats and human protein snacks worldwide.
The manufacturing partnership was announced at a recent Rural Press Club presentation which said it would harness the shared commitment to customer service, operational excellence, innovation and talent development that defines the ethos of each business.
MGFG CEO, Emily Pullen, said SunPork's needs were "complementary to the strategic evolution of the Jim's Jerky business."
Ms Pullen who is the daughter of founders Jim and Cathie Tanner, said the partnership evolved as each company searched for methods to grow their operations.
She said there was a joint need for capacity and drying technologies to produce the highest quality products, for the lucrative pet market and the rapidly growing functional snack markets.
"Our team were excited to partner with Sunpork to provide a unique and unparalleled product and service offering to our customers," she said.
"Working with a new protein to service a new market is an exciting challenge the team is eager to take on, with a great local partner.
"And we are thrilled to explore the significant new innovation and NPD opportunities this will allow us to bring to our customers. "
SunPork CEO and managing director, Dr Robert van Barneveld, said the partnership was a win-win for the companies involved.
He said the MGFG's data-driven drying process and technologies, coupled with SunPork's deep expertise in production efficiency, allowed the manufacturing partnership under Temba Meats to service current and emerging markets and customers with a specialised and state-of-the art drying capability at scale.
"SunPork have access to nearly a quarter of the pigs' ears, snouts, tracheas, pizzles and lungs for dog treats in Australia, but have never found a suitable solution for conversion of these into high value dog treats," he said.
"We needed a partner and involvement in a manufacturing facility to help us in that evolution and we found that with the Mighty Good Food Group.
"In our search for manufacturing options, we were unable to match the product quality achieved using Jim's processing expertise, and as SunPork is a wholly Australian family-owned company we were very well aligned with the values of the Mighty Good Food Group, making this a natural partnership."
The two groups are in the final stages of completing legal agreements with new products from the Temba Meats partnership expected to hit the markets in the latter half of 2024.
The SunPork Group, with more than 52,000 sows and $0.6 billion in revenue, is the largest fully integrated pork production company in Australasia across its 48 farms, two abattoirs, a value-add plant and four feed mills in Australia with another seven farms in New Zealand.
Employing more than 1500 people in regional communities, SunPork produces more than 20 per cent of Australia's pork from 1.2 million pigs per annum totalling more than 90 million kilograms.
The business spans genetics, feed milling, farming, processing, value-adding, sales and marketing and distribution.
The MGFG brings together a long heritage of technology-driven craftsmanship in the creation of premium beef jerky, with a modern, health-oriented approach to world class food manufacturing.
Using the best food science and technology available, Ms Pullen said they aimed to build a portfolio of nutritious, delicious, snack brands using premium Australian beef and other carefully selected proteins.
