Mudgee's old council abattoirs will reopen next year as a multi-million dollar beef export operation that will provide at least 300 jobs for the town.
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Roger Fletcher bought the Mudgee abattoir in February last year for an undisclosed sum, but has been waiting for a government change to the US beef export quota.
That change was announced this week, and now the Daily Liberal can reveal Mr Fletcher is pressing ahead with plans to completely refit the ageing Mudgee facility.
"We weren't going to do anything until we got that outcome," Mr Fletcher said yesterday.
"This gives us an opportunity to see what we can do with Mudgee as a beef abattoir."
"We should get it all done within 12 months."
The new minister for agriculture, fisheries and forestry Peter McGauran released the beef quota review yesterday, and announced the removal of company-specific allocations.
Mr McGauran said the US free trade agreement would see an increase in the overall amount of Australian beef being exported into the USA, and room for a greater number of beef exporters.
He said the Government would be "adopting a first-come-first-served quota regime" with certification issued per consignment, and a safeguard if exports exceed 85 per cent of total allowed.
For Mr Fletcher, it's a green light to invest in yet another regional abattoir, but he was careful about raising the town's expectations.
"We'll assess it over the next few weeks ... we'll start doing some things as soon as we can."
"But it will be a big rebuild job ... and nothing will happen real quickly."
"Don't expect jobs tomorrow morning."
Regardless, it's clear Mudgee will be home to a massive meat processing operation that far exceeds the capacities of the old facility.
"It won't be a small abattoir, it'll be a major complex."
"We're talking about 800 cattle a day ... and about 300 jobs."
Mr Fletcher said finding skilled staff for the facility was a "constant" concern, but one that he faced at all his operations.
"We'll be training everyone from scratch," he said.
"And you don't do that in a day."
Mr Fletcher refused to disclose the sums involved in the new plant, but he said the beef-processing factory would involve the complete refurbishment of the abattoir.
He said that despite the need to remove some major structural elements to the site, he didn't expect any problems regarding council approvals.
"There'll be no problem with that, it's already an abattoir site."
"But we do have a lot of red tape to get through."
The abattoir was previously run by the former Mudgee Shire Council, and it was one of the last surviving council-run abattoirs in Australia.