Push for $6m to help reopen Normanville’s mothballed abattoir

Reopening Normanville’s mothballed abattoir would create about 60 jobs, help local farmers and provide better conditions for animals, Yankalilla Council says.

Fleurieu Peninsula locals, including Koolah Angus Beef’s Vic Walter and his son Derek, would like to see the Normanville abattoir resume services. Picture: Dean Martin

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Reopening Normanville’s mothballed abattoir would create about 60 jobs, help local farmers and provide better conditions for animals, Yankalilla Council says.

Normanville Meatworks closed about four years ago after the business went into administration.

Malaysian-owned company Ternakan Kamran bought the property but the operation quickly fell flat, amid the need to spend $8.6 million on major upgrades, including a roof replacement.

Yankalilla chief executive Nigel Morris said reopening the abattoir would benefit the local agriculture industry, and also help farmers on Kangaroo Island.

Mayor Glen Rowlands said at the moment, some animals were sent to Strathalbyn for slaughter but larger groups were sent to Lobethal and the state’s South East.

The long travel distances affected meat quality and the animals’ weight.

The council has been lobbying state and federal MPs for help, in search of funding to help kickstart the Normanville abattoir’s upgrade.

“Somewhere, someone along the line will say we can make that happen and that’s all I’m dreaming of,” Mr Rowlands said.

“It would be a lot more humane for the animals as well.”

Cattle farmer Derek Walter, of Willow Creek, near Waitpinga, said the Normanville abattoir’s closure made life harder for a lot of farmers.

“It’s gotten very hard on the Fleurieu here – we’ve only got one direction to go – the Adelaide Hills way,” Mr Walter said.

“These days in agriculture, you need as many options as possible to make a little bit of extra money.

“The option to get your own animals cut up and value-added is so much more reduced now.”

Mr Walter believed that if the Normanville abattoir resumed operations, it would attract extra buyers to the area, which would push vealer prices up.

“We’re now holding extra heifers that we should have sold because we couldn’t get decent money for them,” Mr Walter said.

“If there was a local abattoir that was running really well and competitively, it would possibly bring the buyers back to the Fleurieu, and possibly revive the vealer market, which has disappeared.”

Accountant Dennis Ballestrin, for TP Loganatham Pillai Meat Exports Pty Ltd, which plans to manage the abattoir on behalf of Ternakan Kamran, said the companies were applying for grants in the hope of securing about half of the upgrade costs.

They were also looking for bank loans.

Gum Park Beef’s Trevor Paech, based at Mount Jagged, used the Normanville abattoir until its closure.

He said although he had found new arrangements for his cattle at Strathalbyn, another local abattoir was also needed for food security.

“We’re firm believers that we should be eating what’s produced in our own local area, rather than trucking it from one part of the country to another,” Mr Paech said.

Primary Industries and Regional Development Minister Tim Whetstone said while the meatworks’ reopening would be a good outcome, it needed to happen on a commercial basis.

“One must assume that as business people, the investors purchased the site with open eyes as to what would be needed to get it back up and running,” Mr Whetstone said.

“The State Government looks to the new owners to realise the value they saw in the facility by working to obtain private capital to re-establish and modernise the facility for domestic and export meat processing.”

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