Tasmanian Dairy Products, in partnership with Murray Goulburn Co-operative, has officially opened a new multimillion dollar processing facility to produce milk products for export.
The new $80 million facility, located on the former Gunns Ltd saw mill site at Smithton, was built to meet growing demand for milk products in Asia and the Middle East where demand for dairy products is strong.
Murray Goulburn, which owns and operates six processing sites in Victoria and Tasmania, made a significant equity investment in Tasmanian Dairy Products in 2011 to facilitate the construction of the new facility.
The site will process raw milk from Tasmanian farmers to produce a range of dried dairy products for export to overseas markets.
The facility was up and running on schedule, according to Andrew Buckley, a senior project engineer in food and beverages at pitt&sherry, which designed and developed the plant.
It was the tight deadline that set this project apart from others for pitt&sherry, he said. Tasmanian Dairy Products had committed to delivering milk from the plant within 18 months of the project's inception.
“A facility such as this can often take two to three years to complete, but from the moment the project was confirmed, it took just 14 months to have the facility operating and producing powder,” Buckley said.
The new facility is expected to generate 50 jobs in the area.
