AUSTRALIA'S largest dairy food company, Murray Goulburn Co-operative (Devondale Murray Goulburn) has announced three new capital projects worth a combined $127 million.
The projects will be located at the company’s existing sites in Victoria and Tasmania and will be delivered over the next 12 to 18 months.
Devondale Murray Goulburn managing director Gary Helou said the investment was another step forward in the transformation of the co-operative and the Australian dairy industry.
The three projects consist of a $74m investment in Consumer Cheese at Cobram, $38m in Infant Nutrition at Koroit and Cobram, and $14m in Dairy Beverages at Edith Creek in Tasmania.
This follows on from the 2013 announcements of the $120m investment in two new state-of-the-art
daily liquid milk facilities in Melbourne and Sydney, as well as $19m in projects to increase UHT capacity at Leongatha, $5m for consumer butter at Koroit, as well as a further $2m to increase cheese capacity at Cobram.
“The three projects announced today involve investment in world-leading technology with state-of-the-art
automation for processing and packaging a range of dairy foods destined for Asian and Australian
consumers,” Mr Helou said in a statement.
"The plants will carry superior capabilities to customise dairy products for local preferences with efficiency and speed to meet the growing demand for high quality and safe dairy foods from Australia."
About the projects:
- The $74m investment at Cobram will build a world class cheese cut and wrap facility to serve Australian and Asian consumer and food service markets.
- The $38m investment at Koroit and Cobram will increase capacity for production of nutritionals for growing international infant nutrition markets.
- The $14m investment at Edith Creek will install and commission a flexible small format cup and bottle filling line to commercialise a range of dairy beverage products for consumer markets in Australia and Asia.
The projects are dependent on upgrades to regional infrastructure, particularly energy, and Devondale
Murray Goulburn says it will seek to work with the government and energy providers to deliver the upgrades.
