The preliminary findings are positive and suggest that progressing to next stages of more detailed feasibility are warranted.

Key recommendations include:

• Ongoing engagement with key stakeholders including growers, ‘cornerstone’ business customers and potential investors to further understand their aspirations, needs and expectations.
• Refinement of key market and volume demand in collaboration with cornerstone customers and other stakeholders.
• Identification of specific and new product opportunities in target markets and the development of product prototypes with cornerstone customers.
• As part of the above, identify feedstock and product specifications and parameters.
• Undertake more detailed regional economic and risk analysis.
• Refine a business model based on key stakeholder inputs.

In line with the ‘concept to implementation’ timeline below, the above information will also support a more detailed feasibility study.

A detailed feasibility study will determine key markets, ingredient applications, engineering design and costing, business models and investment requirements. It will also consider minimum hub initiation capability and investment requirements, with a view to building further scale and more specialised capabilities into the future.

Concept to implementation timeline

Project update – February 2022

Timeline and project lifecycle: Since the pre-feasibility work, an investment logic mapping exercise has been undertaken that mapped out options for the facility along with considerable additional stakeholder engagement with collaborating stakeholders.

Following the delivery of the investment logic mapping, stakeholders decided to move forward and take the concept to market for investment. Delivery of the business case is the final step in the process under the Gippsland Smart Specialisation Strategy (GS3), which has funded the opportunity to date. A number of investors have showed interest, and the Victorian Government has assisted in socialising the opportunity alongside a number of initiatives it currently has running that would reduce barriers to the facility’s establishment.

A federal funding application to support one third of the project’s cost has also been submitted, with a determination to be delivered in early 2022.  

Scale: Two scales were investigated as part of the investment logic mapping, a ~22kt facility and a 64kt facility. The 64kt facility has been modelled to be the most viable, with a focus on production for the nutraceutical and ingredients markets.

Expected Cost: $75m, with a modelled payback period of either 3.6 or 5 years (depending on the success rates of grower recruitment). Projected revenue by year 5 is expected at $64.m pa, modelled on the 64kt facility.