Australia’s first multi-industry processing partnership is off and running.
Victoria Valley Meat Exports’ journey began, along with the help of Baw Baw Shire council, when they purchased the then closed Giles Family Trafalgar, multi-species abattoir back in 2014 with plans to do minor upgrades to the site.
Unlike today, the cattle industry was at it’s lowest ebb, a very profitable time for the processing industry, and overseas interests were buying Australian beef.
Trafalgar was considered to be the perfect location, situated in the heart of Gippsland. Supporting this location was the pristine West Gippsland farmland, producing some of the best grass fattened beef in Australia and the LaTrobe Valley with its high skilled workforce.
Although the abattoir was intended to rebuild, it soon became apparent to alter course. The mission then became to build the newest, most highly efficient, state of the art, meat processing facility. Principal partner Peter Polovinka has the industrial expertise in the meat and poultry industry, and those skills have built a one-of-a-kind abattoir.
Building a processing plant does not come cheap, and the Andrews Labor Government supported the proposal with a $1.2 million grant. In just a short twelve months, Victoria Valley Meats now have all T2 market access licences in place.
However, it has not been an easy road. Livestock manager Bruce Watson said it had been tough with cyclic stress of 18 months of the hardest times for processors.
“Beef prices have been at their highest levels, ever, and this created some financial difficulties, not only for them, but for all processors”, he said.
Victoria Valley Meats Exports owners have managed to forge a strong partnership with a reputable Malaysian company with interests in the food business. The partnership, operates under the company name Central Agri Group, a vertically integrated beef production business.
One of the competitive advantages of Central Agri Group is it is the only meat processing business in Australia with East and West coast operations and with the ability to process large volumes of Australian beef for export. There are five processing plants which will operate under Central Agri Group, located in Victoria, Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
Central Agri Group’s focus is in the production of high quality meat products under the direction of an experienced management team with expertise in all aspects of meat processing, supply chain, livestock production and the global marketing of meat products.
The group also has extensive properties in the three states with farms, genetics, breeding, livestock trading and feedlot operations.
From here on, it is onward and upward with Victoria Valley Meat Exports moving to construct a $7m, state-of-the-art boning room which will include plate freezers on site and specialized packaging equipment which will bolster supply at a time when global markets are hungry for Australian beef.
This will supply an extra 65 local jobs, making Victoria Valley Meat Exports a 160-plus workforce.
Peter Polovinka thanked the Giles family, state and local government, and said the company was grateful of the ongoing support of the Gippsland farmers.