Minister for Regional Australia, Catherine King, has announced a $3.5m grant to support the construction of a value added processing facility in Parramatta Creek, Tasmania.
The new value added processing facility will cost $10m to build and will deliver 100 jobs initially and then around 150 at full capacity. A further 150 jobs will be created during construction.
The Huon Aquaculture Group has welcomed the announcement, as the new facility forms part of a significant new investment programme at the company totalling more than $100m over the next five years.
Managing Director Peter Bender said the new value added processing facility is part of a $100m controlled growth strategy for the company that consolidates its operations to Tasmania and will deliver increased production capacity and substantial improvements to existing infrastructure.
“Our current Mount Barker operation in South Australia is at full capacity and the lease is very close to expiry. We must commence building as soon as possible to ensure the new facility can be operational by the time we are required to vacate Mount Barker in December 2014”, he said.
The new value added processing facility will house a large smokehouse and state-of-the-art processing and packaging machinery.
Mr Bender and Huon Aquaculture Co-Owner Frances Bender said that whilst it was good news for Tasmania and a major milestone or the company, it was also a sad day for their staff in Mount Barker. However, they reassured them that they would be offered the opportunity to relocate to the new facility on completion or a redundancy package.
Construction is expected to commence in January 2014 and be operational by September the same year.
The new factory will double in size to be 2,500 square metres.
