$400m fruit, vegetable processing plant planned for Withcott approved by Lockyer Valley council

It’s a $400m project that will employ more than 500 people once fully built. Now a massive cannery facility near Toowoomba has got the green light.

The first stage of a massive $400m fruit and vegetable processing facility planned for the foot of the Toowoomba range could be open and operational in just 18 months, after plans were approved by the Lockyer Valley Regional Council.

Lockyer Valley Fruit and Vegetable Processing Company has been given the green light by the council for its five-stage factory and precinct off Roches Road in Withcott.

The facility, which will employ more than 500 workers once operational, would annually turn 700,000 tonnes tomatoes, potatoes, beetroot, broccoli, berries and other fruits, vegetables and fungi sourced from the Darling Downs into supermarket products.

Along with processing the produce in-house for traditional consumption, the facility will also create and store cans ready to be placed on supermarket shelves and make powders for a variety of uses out of fruits and vegetables normally thrown out.

Lockyer Valley Fruit and Vegetable Processing Company Limited project founder Colin Dorber with the development approval from the council.

Company CEO Colin Dorber said the $80m first stage would include building the plant rooms, most of the 470 car parks and much of the processing facilities.

He said this work will start in March, pending operational works approvals.

“We’re doing our operational planning from next Monday and we’d hope to start moving 300,000 tonnes of soil from March this year,” Mr Dorber said.

“All going well, it will be built, open and operational from July 2024.”

The facility has been a passion project of Mr Dorber for more than a decade, sparked by the takeover of Golden Circle by Heinz that destroyed the livelihoods of several Lockyer Valley farmers.

Its unique business model involves the formation of a co-operative owned by up to 100,000 ordinary Australians investing $1000 each into it.

The co-op would then buy a majority stake in the company that owns the facility, virtually ensuring it could not be sold to a foreign entity.

Concept art of the $180m fruit and vegetable processing facility at Withcott.

Mr Dorber said he currently had commitments for $16m in seed money from two private investors and had recently partnered with the Business Council of Co-operatives and Mutuals to run a co-ordinated recruitment campaign.

“We’ve got formal funding commitments for $16m, which is enough to get cracking,” he said.

“We’ve established the cooperative, and our target is 100,000 Australians at $1000 a head (which) then becomes a recipient of the dividends.

“We’ve reached an agreement that (the BCCM) will put forward a proposal to recruit people — We need the skills that the BCCM can offer.”

Mr Dorber said the final project will be energy and waste-efficient and feature a number of staff amenities include a childcare centre.

To learn how to invest in the project, head to the website.