SOUTH AUSTRALIA TO BECOME PLANT PROTEIN POWERHOUSE Positioning South Australia to become a major supplier of plant proteins and generating up to 8500 jobs in the state, a newly announced $378M project to construct three new plant protein processing facilities will be the largest investment in Australia’s plant protein sector to date.
T
he project is a joint venture amongst Australian Plant Proteins (APP), Australian Milling Group and Australian meat company and one of the country’s largest family-owned food businesses, Thomas Foods International. While many Australian plant-based meat manufacturers have expressed a desire to purchase and use more Australian grown plant proteins in their products, APP is the only commercial scale pulse protein extraction facility currently producing such ingredients in Australia. The new venture will significantly expand domestic plant protein supply and export opportunities, quadrupling existing production in South Australia and supplying 25,000 tonnes of pulse protein per year.
For APP co-founder and director Brendan McKeegan, the new venture is a significant boost for the company’s manufacturing
capabilities and the country’s ability to compete in global markets as demand for new sustainable proteins grows. “It puts us on a global scale and a level playing field with Canadians, who are the world leaders. We’ll be able to compete with them internationally through supplying plant protein products and ingredients to global markets,” he explained. “For the first time we’ll be able to supply to scale plant protein for Australian manufacturers.” Thomas Foods managing director Darren Thomas said the time was right to expand into the plant-based industry. “The market for plant-based products is expanding rapidly and we see great opportunity to leverage our experience and expertise into this exciting new (industry) for local farmers and consumers across the globe.”
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