WESTERN Australia's biggest pork producer has restarted plans for a multi-million dollar piggery development, which would harness methane from pig manure to produce power.
Westpork secured approval for the $28 million project, near Moora in the Wheatbelt, in 2017.
However, further development was parked within 12 months, after a significant downturn in the Australian pig market left pork prices at a decade-low.
The 68,000-head piggery, located 32 kilometres from Moora in the Shire of Dandaragan, is set to create 28 full time jobs and increase Westpork's existing annual production of 390,000 head, by about 15 per cent.
Westpork chief executive officer Neil Ferguson said building of the piggery on its 1800ha site, would start in June with the first pigs entering the facility in December to be sold in September next year.
Mr Fergison added Westpork had partnered with Advanced Energy Resources (AER) in using a buyer gas system to capture methane from pig manure and produce 3.5 megawatts of energy a year.
He said the new piggery would be powered by technology including a combination of biogas, wind, solar and battery energy storage, and AER's HybriDrive pump drive technology.
"The local network would service ourselves and onsold to neighbouring farming properties and enterprise through a private distribution network," Mr Ferguson said.
"The surplus gas potentially would be sold back into the grid."
Mr Ferguson said with COVID-19 strongly impacting supply chains, there was an increased demand for Australian pork product heading into the processing sector.
"With beef prices being as high as they are, there are additional pork sales and we now have the demand from our customers for extra pigs."
Moora Shire president Tracy Lefroy said confirmation of Westpork's newest facility allowed Moora and surrounding region to further diversify its industry base and grow employment opportunities.
She said the new agrifood industries would stimulate growth in the key public service areas and - more broadly - commercial activity in Moora.
"This truly is a generational opportunity for our region," Ms Lefroy said.
"We are welcoming two large scale agri-food businesses to our Shire, and our existing Moora Citrus is undergoing considerable upscaling thanks in part, to the State government's Regional Economic Development funding through the Wheatbelt Development Commission.
"With particular regard to Westpork, the construction of the first two modules of the piggery will mean immediate jobs during the building phase and lead to another 50 full time jobs once fully commissioned.
"Using the accepted formula that each new job with agriculture creates 2.4 jobs in the community translates to Moora potentially welcoming almost 200 new families to our Shire as result of Westpork's new facility."
Ms Lefroy said the development would also provide a valuable domestic market for grain.
She said Westpork had forecasted that more than 25,000 tonnes of feed per annum would be consumed with the commissioning of the first two modules of the piggery.
"Moora farmers are set to be at an advantage with low freight costs to deliver locally," Ms Lefroy said.
The Shire of Moora is also working with Westpork to ensure that the town is ready to welcome the new agri-food business and its associated work force to town.
The Shire is looking to cater for additional families through new residential land developments, is undertaking an audit of available housing and seeking input from Westpork on their housing requirements.
"Our local primary schools and high school have capacity to accept new students - the high school in particular is enjoying an increase in student numbers, with the current enrolment numbers the highest they've been for a decade," Ms Lefroy said.
Pork prices are still bullish
WESTERN Australian Pork Producers Association president Graeme Dent said although current pork prices weren't the highest they had been, they were still "reasonable".
"We are certainly getting up there," Mr Dent said.
"The prices are pretty bullish, but of course they have to be because you compare our price that we are getting against beef and sheep at the moment - it is still a pretty cheap meat for the consumer."
Mr Dent said COVID-19 had an impact on the supply chain with State and international border restrictions and restaurant closures hitting the pork industry hard.
"As soon as COVID-19 came along in May borders were shut, restaurants were shut and the industry nearly fell back to where it was," he said.
"When you are relying on air freight and planes aren't able to fly, it is a bit of a problem.
"If 10 to 15 per cent of your market is going to Singapore and that is closed and 25pc of your product is going into the restaurant trade, which has also closed, all of a sudden you've lost 35pc.
"And that all had to hit the freezers.
"The freezers in May and June were right to the point of being chock-a-block full.
"Once the restaurants started to open again they were able to slowly clear that backlog."
Mr Dent said while there was government assistance available for agricultural exports, the cost for flying product out of Perth was "about twice the price" than what it was from the Eastern States.
He added that sending a product by sea freight depleted shelf-life pork, which made exporting difficult because importers wanted a chilled fresh product.
Despite the challenges, there has been an increased demand in the domestic market off the back of COVID-19.
With freight disruptions across the world, companies which have been importing meat haven't been able to import as much meat either.
"A little bit more of our product has been going into small goods including ham and bacon," Mr Dent said.
"Eighty five per cent of that meat is imported anyway and we don't need much of a swing for those guys to buy a bit of our product to keep us ahead.
"We aren't asking them to switch right over, but we are hoping they will use a bit more local product."
