THE Gunnedah shire is playing host to a delegation of Chinese business representatives who are exploring the possibility of building a potential new abattoir for the region.
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The delegation consists of representatives from a major Chinese company heavily involved with the beef supply for the country and visited several of the region’s beef facilities including the Gunnedah Saleyards.
Gunnedah mayor Jamie Chaffey told The Namoi Valley Independent the visit was a direct result of Namoi Unlimited Joint Organisation (JO)’s visit to China in March.
“This group of investors predominantly from one large Chinese company based out of Nanjing which is located on the central east coast of China,” Cr Chaffey said.
"They are a company that showed an enormous interest in abattoir projects back in March when Gunnedah participated along with the seven mayors from Namoi Unlimited JO in doing trade and investment seminars in China."
Cr Chaffey said the company has shown a “genuine interest” the Gunnedah region.
“Just before I flew home I actually sat and talked to the board more about this actual project and other opportunities in Gunnedah before I came back in March,” he said.
“So now it is fantastic to see that their interest is so great that they have taken the time to come to Gunnedah, into our region and basically ground truth all of the information that we shared with them that this is the great location for the establishment of an export grade abattoir."
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The delegates will spend two days in the region, visiting local farms and other local processing facilities and will meet with Parkes federal MP Mark Coulton and state Tamworth MP Kevin Anderson.
“I can say so far, during the presentation we had this morning, their interest is genuine and they are genuinely excited about what the next two days of us spending our time together can potentially see,” Cr Chaffey said.
“So over the next two days we will be taking our time to go through the shire, looking at farms and looking at other locations potentially for the facility to be built and other processing industries and businesses that are here that are looking for potential partners in China to distribute their products.
“We will be visiting a well known farm in the shire today [on Tuesday] for lunch and we will be joined by our federal member for Parkes Mark Coulton and our state member for Tamworth Kevin Anderson.
“The purpose of us all meeting is to show that all three levels of government are firmly behind the potential that exists for an export grade abattoir to be established in our shire.”
The delegation will the leave the region later this week.
Billy Jupp
Billy is a Senior Livestock Journalist for the Queensland Country Life based in Toowoomba. He has worked for a variety of different ACM mastheads during the past five years including the Namoi Valley Independent, Northern Daily Leader and The Land.
Billy is a Senior Livestock Journalist for the Queensland Country Life based in Toowoomba. He has worked for a variety of different ACM mastheads during the past five years including the Namoi Valley Independent, Northern Daily Leader and The Land.
