Media Release: $8 Million funding for Tasmanian Quality Meats expansion

Posted on May 02, 2019

Mayor Mary Knowles OAM welcomes the announcement of an $8million commitment made yesterday for the expansion of Tasmanian Quality Meats at Cressy from the Nationals if the Liberals are re-elected to Government. The Nationals in Government have committed $8million towards the expansion of a meat processing plant at the Cressy facility. The expansion of the meat processing plant will allow for an extra 100 full time jobs within the Northern Midlands and will also give the Tasmanian meat processing industry a $50million economic boost.

TQM have identified the need to expand their meat production due to the high demand of Tasmanian lamb products worldwide. TQM have committed to the reputation and integrity of the Tasmanian brand by heavily investing into new branding ‘Lamb of Tasmania’ which guarantees consumers that they are buying 100% Tasmanian lamb product. TQM hopes that by providing this new branding and labelling that it will make it easier for consumers to identify and support Tasmanian lamb products on supermarket shelves. The expansion will provide a saving directly to the primary producer of around $8million annually on freight and weight cost.

“It is great to see Tasmanian owned and run companies investing so heavily into our municipality. This expansion will provide some well needed jobs for Northern Tasmania and will allow for more of our Tasmanian lamb products to stay here in Tasmania for all Tasmanians to enjoy. Currently lamb that is sold in Tasmanian supermarkets cannot be guaranteed as a Tasmanian product but by expanding their meat processing facility at Cressy, TQM is guaranteeing that more of our lamb product stays in Tasmania.” said Mayor Knowles.

“At present time TQM only has the capacity to allow for 400,000 sheep and lambs per year to be processed at our Cressy plant which leaves an additional 800,000 sheep and lambs from Tasmania that need to be processed in Victoria. This is a massive cost to farmers and the stress that the travel puts on their livestock can often be detrimental to the animal and also to the farmer. By expanding our facility, it will reduce the cost of production, allowing us to be able to pay farmers more for their stock.” said TQM Managing Director Brian Oliver.

The Northern Midlands Council welcomes this announcement and commends Tasmanian Quality Meats on investing so strongly into the Northern Midlands economy and community.