IN conjunction with last week's WAMMCO International State Prime Lamb Carcase Competition, the co-operative's longest serving director and former chairman Dawson Bradford, Hillcroft Farms, Popanyinning, officially opened the Katanning abattoir's new $11.6 million chiller and freezer complex.
The new build includes a variable retention tunnel (VRT) - a technology widely used in the dairy industry and adapted to offshore meat processing plants - which both freezes and chills boxed meats using one streamlined process.
The new complex, which took nine months to build, is the first stage of a long-term investment which will see additional capacity added to the boning room in the next two years.
The investment is also the single biggest made by WAMMCO in its 17-year history as a co-op, topping its $10m investment in the Southern Meats abattoir in Goulburn, New Soith Wales.
Mr Bradford said the storage and handling of product once it left the boning room was one of the biggest issues faced by the new co-op board 17 years ago.
WAMMCO only had a very small amount of inadequate storage at the time and the short-term solution was to have chilled boxes in refrigerated containers parked outside the WAMMCO buildings until they were ready for shipping.
He said frozen products were also shipped directly to cold stores in Perth, held there until there was a sufficient quantity and then shipped.
It cost the co-op close to $1m a year to have the product stored off-site and significantly heightened the contamination risk.
"Right from the start it was clear chiller and freezer storage was one of the highest priorities for the board," Mr Bradford said.
Freezer storage was first tackled in the 2005/06 season, (after the co-op's near collapse in 2000, at a cost of $2.5m.
"Our latest investment represents a huge vote of confidence in the industry," Mr Bradford said. "It's an investment that will allow WAMMCO to remain at the top end of the list of preferred suppliers of quality product in a world that's continually demanding more product of a better quality.
"Increased production allowed for more value-adding which has the flow-on effect of producing more products and developing the need for more storage.
"A few years ago we reached the point where we couldn't put off building this facility any longer."
He said the process was set in place about 2.5 years ago with the first costing totalling $19m.
"That quote nearly derailed the project from the beginning," Mr Bradford said.
"The new build will greatly enhance the efficiency and profitability of WAMMCO operations for years to come and the timing is right to further capitalise on market opportunities."
At the completion of this build stage there will have been more than $34m spent on capital works at the Katanning plant in the past 17 years.
