$11.5m jobs boost
Warragul hydroponics firm Flavorite will start an $11.5 expansion this year that will boost jobs and export opportunities.
The company, established at Warragul in 1990, will build a new 4.3 hectare glasshouse on the Copelands Rd property.
Senior grower Will Millis said the building, on which construction is due to begin in December and be completed by mid next year, will bring the total area “under roof” to about 28 hectares.
It would be a further boost to production of tomatoes and capsicums that, Mr Mills said, last year totalled about 15,000 tonnes.
State Minister for Industry, Employment and Resources Wade Noonan visited Flavorite last Wednesday to announce the government will provide some financial backing to the development from its Latrobe Valley Economic Facilitation Fund.
The fund supports the Latrobe Valley transition program and is part of the government’s response to the closure of the Hazelwood power station later this month.
Mr Noonan was not prepared to disclose how much the government was contributing towards the Flavorite expansion.
However, he said it was the second project in Baw Baw Shire to receive a grant from the fund – the other was the Victoria Valley Meats abattoir at Trafalgar.
Mr Noonan said the new glasshouse would employ 12 people in the construction phase and provide 33 new ongoing jobs.
The firm currently employs 320 employees at Warragul.
Mr Noonan said the LVEFF was set up to grow jobs, strengthen local industries and support new investments in Latrobe City and Baw Baw and Wellington shires.
It is a challenging time for the Latrobe Valley and that is why the government is supporting projects that create jobs and boost the economy of Gippsland, he said.
Committee for Gippsland chief executive officer Mary Aldred said her organisation had been working closely with the Minister identifying job creation and investment opportunities.
She pointed out that about 2000 Baw Baw Shire residents travel to the Latrobe Valley for work each day.
However, the government’s unwillingness to disclose the amount of its support for the expansion at Flavorite again raised the eyebrows of Member for Narracan Gary Blackwood.
He said he would put a question on notice to the Minister in parliament seeking details.
An earlier question on notice about the grant to Victoria Valley Meats failed to get the government to state an amount.
“I don’t know why they are not prepared to give figures,” Mr Blackwood said.