Australians-first Withcott fruit, veggie processing plant outside Toowoomba worth $180m to create 400 jobs

A new $180m food processing facility and cannery will inject “hope and confidence” into the Lockyer Valley region’s farmers and residents, according to its mayor.

Lockyer Valley Mayor Tanya Milligan has backed a plan to create a $180m community-owned fruit and vegetable processing facility at Withcott.

A new “Australia-first” community-owned $180m fruit and vegetable processing facility and cannery in the Lockyer Valley will employ hundreds of people and inject millions into the local economy — now it needs investors.

That’s according to the project’s architects, who hope to kickstart a major agricultural boom with a multistage factory that will snap-freeze vegetables and create powders, juices and canned goods to sell on supermarket shelves, all from Lockyer Valley farms.

Planned for a 54-hectare parcel of land at the bottom of the Toowoomba range at Withcott, the facility is expected to employ 400 people once fully operational and turn over a $7.5m profit after its first year of operation.

Lockyer Valley Fruit and Vegetable Processing Company CEO Colin Dorber said he planned to submit a development application within months to the Lockyer Valley Regional Council, with construction expected to start by the end of the year.

“All up, it will cost us $80m for stage one, $20m for stage two and the physical build of the buildings is $15m – all up it will cost $180m,” he said.

The concept fills a major gap for existing Darling Downs and Scenic Rim producers, ensuring fewer fruits and vegetables are left to rot in the ground and instead are turned into useful products for people and animals.

Mr Dorber said as much as 40 per cent of produce grown in the Lockyer was wasted because there was no local processing plant.

But what makes the facility unique is the main company’s major investor will be a newly-registered co-operative, made up of thousands of Queenslanders who will invest at least $1000 each.

Mr Dorber said this was to ensure the facility could virtually never become foreign-owned and instead remained in Australian hands to service the domestic market.

“The goal is that 20,000 Queenslanders put in $1000 each and become members of the cooperative,” he said.

“The intention of the cooperative is to principally invest in the commercial entity to facilitate the building of the factory. In return, it will get dividends.

“By being the principal shareholder, it protects the company being taken over by the Japanese, Chinese, French or Italians.”

Confident in its success, Mr Dorber said the project would prove Australian manufacturing was not only possible but highly lucrative.

SPECIAL PROJECT: Retired Laidley farmer Ivan Peters, who is investor in a major upcoming fruit and vegetable processing facility at Withcott, is urging Darling Downs residents to sign up to the co-operative that will ensure the massive business services the local community.

“No one can make money in Australia with manufacturing, that’s what they say, because labour costs are too high,” he said.

“But for us, labour is just 15 per cent of our costs, because of the technology we use.

“This will be the first food processing facility in Australia purpose-built using state-of-the-art technology.”

Cooperative managing director Cheryl Bromage said she was expecting strong support for a project that matched the demand from many residents and consumers for Australian products.

“The timing is currently right, because you’ve got the Covid issues that have hit home — people were missing out on products due to the border closures,” she said.

“It’s like a whole wheel, you’ve got the top being the farmers, the suppliers, the consumers and then you’ve got the mums and dads who are out there to make sure the farmers continue to grow local produce.”

LVFVPC community director Marie King will also lead a schools-based education and community activities program once the facility is completed.

“I’ve been working with Colin for seven years, and as a resident of the Lockyer Valley I can see tremendous benefits that will flow from its completion,” she said.

To register your interest in the cooperative, send an email to [e-mail].

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

LONG ROAD TO FIND FUNDING MODEL

Colin Dorber remembers the sense of betrayal felt by Lockyer Valley farmers after they were financially destroyed by multinational corporation Heinz more than 10 years ago.

“Golden Circle was a cooperative owned by the beetroot growers, they saw the holy dollar and they sold the cooperative called Golden Circle to Heinz,” he said.

“Heinz then made all these noises about expansion and growth, so the growers spent a fortune upgrading the whole operation of the beetroot industry, which provided 90 per cent of Australia’s beetroot.

“Then Heinz announced by media release on May 11, 2011, that they were getting out and going to New Zealand.

“It destroyed their livelihoods, so I got them together and said we should sue the bastards and we did.”

What followed was a decade-long journey to find a better solution for Australian growers which took Mr Dorber across the world and had him rubbing shoulders with political and business figures.

The community-owned fresh produce processing facility was the end goal, but Mr Dorber said the path to reaching that was long and winding.

“Out of that money (from the Heinz suit), I got the growers to give me $150,000 to fund an international feasibility study about beetroot,” he said.

“The study found we should recognise there was currently no processing facility in Queensland that could process and can beetroot.”

Mr Dorber and the investors then met with firms from China, the United Arab Emirates and Australia trying to find the funding.

All the while, they were supported by the late Lockyer Valley Mayor Steve Jones and the council put $30,000 towards their efforts — the only government funding they have received.

AUSTRALIA FIRST: Standing on the site of an upcoming $80m fresh produce processing facility at Withcott are (from left) Lockyer Fruit and Vegetable Ltd Cooperative managing director Cheryl Bromage, Lockyer Valley Fruit and Vegetable Food Processing Company CEO Colin Dorber, retired farmer and company investor Ivan Peters and co-operative director Marie King.

Mr Dorber thought he’d reached a breakthrough four years ago when a famous Australian businessman promised to invest $1m into the campaign, only to back off.

“In 2018, the ABC came to Gatton and broadcast from Gatton Showgrounds and at the time, and (we) were interviewed,” he said.

“(The businessman) rang in on-air and announced he was putting $1m into the project.

“He later wrote to me and said he’d changed his mind — he said Coles and Woolies would kill us, because they don’t want us.”

By that point, residents had promised to invest $400,000 on the back of the original pledge — money that had to be given back once that offer was withdrawn.

Mr Dorber struck on the co-operative model nearly a year ago, which allowed the group to harness the grassroots support for the project that had developed over the years.

Lockyer Valley Regional Council mayor Tanya Milligan. PHOTO: Ali Kuchel

MAYOR BACKS CANNERY PROPOSAL

A new $180m food processing facility and cannery will inject “hope and confidence” into the Lockyer Valley region, according to Mayor Tanya Milligan.

Ms Milligan and the council have thrown their conditional support behind the project, which is planned for a large parcel of land in Withcott.

The Lockyer Valley Fruit and Vegetable Processing Company running the facility, which will produce canned, frozen and powdered products from Darling Downs fruits and vegetables, will be majority-owned by a co-operative featuring thousands of paying Queenslanders.

The $80m first stage, which is slated to be built by 2023, will employ 170 people and turn over a $7.5m profit in its first year.

By the end of the stage three, it will have 400 workers.

Ms Milligan said while the council still needed to see the development application from Colin Dorber and his team for the facility, she saw the enormous benefits of the project taking off.

“Council is still yet to receive the DA from the applicant but we are eagerly awaiting it to come through,” she said.

“(The Lockyer Valley) is known as the salad bowl, we produce some of the most diverse range of vegetables found in Australia.

“We produce 35,000 tonnes of veg every year, so that supply chain is worth $1.62bn per year.

“This will generate a substantial number of jobs, it will lead to further investment, and it will also reduce transportation times.”

Ms Milligan said the facility was a welcome proposal after several tough years for the wider community.

“Agriculture is one of our key economic drivers and any investment will have direct positive flow-on effects,” she said.

“It’s been some tough years for lots of families and farming communities, so a project like this brings hope and confidence.

“To Colin and his team, I really take my hat off to them — to power on over 10 years with this, that is real resilience and our community and nation will be the benefactors of that.”

The council has been a long-time supporter of the project, dating back nearly a decade ago when then-Mayor Steve Jones gave the company a $30,000 grant towards establishing it.