Wellard Rural Exports has signed an agreement to purchase the Beaufort River Meats abattoir at Woodanilling, Western Australia.

Wellard executive chairman Mauro Balzarini announced the purchase in a media release issued yesterday, and said the Beaufort River Meats acquisition:

• Expands the range of products the company can offer to its overseas clients;

• Complements the company’s live sheep export business;

• Provides additional sheep marketing opportunities for farmers; and

• Satisfies the growing global demand for protein.

“We now can offer sheep producers a “the whole of mob purchase option” because we can select animals which are suitable for export and animals which are suitable for local processing, an option we did not have before. Western

Australian producers will benefit from this certainty and can take advantage of that dual demand,” Mr Balzarini said.

“Combined, Beaufort River Meats and Wellard will provide important slaughter and live export competition in the market place that will benefit Western Australian sheep producers.

“Our family has been involved in the processing industry in Italy and Ireland in the past so we have significant experience in the meat processing sector.”

Importantly, the Macri family will remain integrally involved in the abattoir’s operations.

“Wellard is seeking to buy more than bricks and mortar. Our assets are our people and Joe, Anna and their family will enhance this. They are family like we are.”

Beaufort River Meats adds to Wellard’s diversified agribusiness model, which includes live exports, cropping, animal production and farm machinery as part of an end to end, Paddock to Plate model.

Operations at Beaufort River Meats will resume in October after its annual winter shutdown, and Wellard’s buyers will be purchasing stock for both slaughter and live export, providing a total purchasing solution for farmers.

Beaufort River Meats is located only 20 kilometres away from Wellard’s Kojonup Agri Hub, where it produces Heyfield Poll Merino stud rams, runs 12,000 breeding ewes and crops 8,000 hectares , and is also close to the Wellard CLAAS Harvest Centre at Katanning.

“The purchase of Beaufort River Meats means Wellard is an even larger employer and member of the Kojonup community,” Mr Balzarini said.

The Beaufort River abattoir has a capacity of 2500 head per day. The sheep and lambs will be Halal slaughtered and chilled and frozen to supply markets throughout the world.

Details of the purchase terms remain confidential.