The part-owner of a Trafalgar meatworks said he hoped to double the plant’s throughput, after assistance from the state government.
The government announced a grant for Victoria Valley Meat Exports Pty Ltd, as part of its Latrobe Valley Economic Development Program.
Victoria Valley part owner Peter Polovinka said it was planned to increase production capacity, from 600 to 1200 head of stock, a week.
“We will be value adding by using more parts of the animal,” Mr Polavinka said.
A new plant would be installed to process offal, such as tripe, for export markets.
“We want to make more money out of these animals.”
Mr Polavinka said the company had been planning the expansion for the past six months.
“We’ve been up and running about four months but we were finding we were throwing out all these other products we could have been using.”
He said much of the new product would be exported to Japan and South Korea but would also go into markets in the Middle East and the rest of South East Asia.
“My business partners have been involved in meat processing sales for many years,” he said.
Premier Daniel Andrews said the government was helping create 73 new full time jobs, with the expansion of the facility.
Mr Andrews and Industry and Employment minister Wade Noonan visited the plant last week, announcing the company’s $1.2 million expansion.
Mr Polavinka said the plant would ramp up production, when cattle and sheep numbers came up and prices came down.
A Boolara dairy farmer, he took over the former LE Giles abbatoir, intending to turn it into an export processing facility.
The abbatoir was refurbished as a Tier Two works, which gave Victoria Valley access to all overseas markets, except China.
It was intended to initially process 200 head of cattle a day, but wet weather had hampered the company’s ability to get stock off properties.
“We’re only a small plant and have been operating four days a week – the country needs to dry out, so we can get onto properties, to get them off.”
The expansion was also expected to create 85 new indirect jobs for the local area.
The project was the first to be supported from the government’s Latrobe Valley Economic Facilitation Fund, which was intended to support job creation as part of the economic development program.
Mr Andrews said the fund was focused on fast tracking projects, which helped existing companies grow and reach their full potential, as well as attracting new investment into the Valley.
