A group of Queensland vegetable farmers have hatched an ambitious plan to build their own $40 million facility in response to the exodus of processors in the category.
The 6000-square-metre vegetable processing plant will be built at Grantham in south-east Queensland by the group who are called Lockyer Farmers United, which was formed in 2011 after Heinz withdrew from the beetroot processing sector in Australia.
The new plant will initially process beetroot and will then expand into five different vegetable lines, including potatoes, beans, and carrots in its first year of operation.
Lockyer Farmers United plans to look for private investors, however, instead of seeking government funding for the venture, which is expected to create up to 100 jobs and provide more certainty to vegetable growers in the region.
Construction is due to start within three months and the plant is expected to open in 2016. According to Lockyer Farmers United, the use of new technology, ideas and business practices will help make the venture more profitable than those run by existing operators.
SPC Ardmona and Simplot have both experienced diminishing returns from vegetable processing in recent years, and last year, Windsor Farm Foods beetroot cannery in Cowra, NSW, which was the last wholly owned Australian cannery, was placed into voluntary administration.
These companies, however, say an influx of cheap imported canned vegetables have added to their woes, and this week the Anti-Dumping Commission found that 56 per cent of all imported processed tomatoes from Italy had been dumped on Australian shores, causing material injury to the industry.
As a result of the inquiry, two Italian exporters will have a dumping duty applied at over 26 per cent, while other exporters will have duties applied at five per cent.
Farmers in south-east Queensland plan to build their own vegetable processing plant.
