NEW, state-of-the-art production facilities located north and south of the river have given Western Australia’s food and agriculture industries further impetus to sustain their current growth.
The state government recently highlighted the strength of the local industry in light of the economic downturn, with WA exporting a record $6 billion worth of food and agricultural commodities in the last financial year.
The previous year’s record of $4.7 billion was eclipsed thanks to growing demand from Asia and the Middle East.
Agriculture and Food Minister Terry Redman said up to 90 per cent of what WA produces annually was exported.
“WA has less than 10 per cent of Australia’s farms, but we produce nearly 20 per cent of Australia’s total agriculture and food exports,” he said.
In 2008-09, Indonesia took $931 million worth of agricultural products from WA, mainly grain, cattle and meat.
Other key agricultural export markets included Japan ($748 million), China (including Hong Kong, $686 million) and Iran ($465 million).
Wheat ($2.7 billion), canola ($535 million) and livestock ($487 million) were the top three agricultural exports for WA.
The export of horticultural products such as fresh fruit and vegetables is valued at about $136 million.
Last week, Mr Redman opened an $11 million fresh food production facility in Bibra Lake called Harvest FreshCuts, which is part of the Queensland-based OneHarvest group of companies.
Local growers supplying the factory will produce an average of 15,000 bags of fresh salads, vegetables and stir-fries per day for supermarkets across the state.
Mr Redman said Harvest FreshCuts would employ up to 100 people by the end of 2009 and inject about $10 million into local industry.
In early September, Mr Redman opened the new Ti Produce strawberry packing house in Wanneroo.
Mr Redman said it was a little-known fact that strawberries were WA’s most valuable fruit export, adding about $50 million to the state’s economy annually – a level the government projects to increase by 10 per cent during the next three years.
“More than 80 per cent of Australia’s strawberry exports come from WA,” he said.
The Ti Produce packing house is capable of handling more than 12,000 trays of strawberries per day exporting two-thirds of its output by air to Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia and Dubai.
