New Marquis Macadamias expansion approved by Bundaberg Regional Council

One of Bundaberg’s macadamia factories will undergo a $13m expansion after getting the green light from the council. Here’s what it means for local jobs.

A multimillion-dollar expansion of a local macadamia facility means more jobs for locals after the project got the council’s tick of approval.

Marquis Macadamias lodged a combined material change of use and boundary realignment application in May for the $13.3 million project which is expected to increase throughput by 20,000 tonnes.

Plans to expand the facility were announced in April during a visit from state Treasurer Cameron Dick, who said the project would receive a contribution from the State Government’s $175 million Jobs and Regional Growth fund.

The facility expansion will include a new cold storage warehouse for final product to ensure the company can ship high quality product to their customers all 12 months of the year.

The expansion of the Marquis Macadamias facility will see capacity increase to 30,000 tonnes.

It will also include nut in shell drying and storage prior to processing and a solar farm to generate power to their operations.

The current factory was built in 2011 and started out processing about 4,000t of macadamia nuts and this year the facility was expected to process about 11,000.

The expansion will cater for the “rapidly expanding” macadamia industry and see the factory increase their throughput from just over 10,000t to 30,000t.

An additional 50 local jobs will be created with 30 of those in the construction phase.

Marquis Macadamias CEO Larry McHugh said the facility would the project would create jobs on farm and in other services.

Marquis Macadamias CEO Larry McHugh told the NewsMail in May the expansion would ensure local growers had a home for their product and allow the company to take advantage of export opportunities.

“With the agricultural industry and food manufacturing being a strong pillar during the COVID-19 pandemic, this expansion will help ensure our economy’s recovery continues on its strong upward trajectory,” he said.

“It puts Bundaberg on the international map for supply of high quality agricultural product.”

Earlier this year Macadamia’s Australia also opened its new $25 million cracking facility which is able to process about 9000t of macadamia nuts.