Griffith’s burgeoning almond growing industry is set to reap the benefits of a national almond processing company’s arrival in the region.
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A new $25 million almond processing facility was officially opened in Griffith by NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Wednesday.
South Australian almond company Almondco offered tender to 20 companies employing Griffith workers during its 13-month construction, with around 20 Griffith workers expected to be hired next season.
Almondco Managing Director Brenton Woolston said the project was nine years in the planning and was a significant milestone for the 73-year-old grower-owned company.
“It has been a long planning phase, but now our growers can deliver their crops locally in a timely manner, instead of incurring the extra storage and transporting cost of the bulk field harvested product to South Australia,” he said.
Griffith almond farmer James Callipari has been farming almonds since 2006, and is excited about the opening after much anticipation.
“From our point of view it is excellent for our business because we have processing facilities right on our doorstep, we can keep track of our product, its not travelling six ours to be processed, and there is significant saving on our freight bill,” Mr Callipari said.
“There was only a handful of growers at the time, but now there is quite a lot of almond growers in the area, and I think now that we have a processing facility in the area it will encourage more people to become part of it.
“Our company structure and ethos is about value sharing and optimising return to our grower members throughout key facets of the supply chain.”
This facility will have far-reaching benefits for those outside of the Griffith area.
Graham and Shan Fleming from Moulamein, owners of Grahams Factree an almond nursery who also our an almonds, say they expect that more people will now be interested in growing almonds – excellent news for their business.
“Having this facility here will certainly encourage people to become involved in almond farming, and Griffith has already become a huge producer of almonds, but the hope is this facility will encourage a lot more,” Mr Fleming said.
Mr Woolston made special acknowledgement to NSW Treasury and TCorp who supported the project through a $24 million co-operative loan which was crucial to the Almondco Directors decision to proceed with the project in late 2015.
Praise was also paramount for the Griffith City Council for their support and engagement since lodging the Development application back in 2010 through to site completion in April 2017.