BioMar Australia has started the commissioning of their Wesley Vale facility with some 38 staff now employed, offices open and world class laboratories in operation. The facility is on track to be in production by April and an official opening expected in late May.

In late 2017, the firm unveiled plans to develop a $56 million world-class, state-of-the art fish feed production facility at Wesley Vale. BioMar Australia’s managing director, David Whyte, said 2020 is set to be a big year, with the development set to produce up to 110,000 tons per year of aquafeed product to support the Australian and Oceania aquaculture industry, creating some 55 full time jobs and an additional 30 jobs across the region through indirect support, operational, port services and logistical roles.

“The team has moved into the new office build and “wet commissioning” where we run all factory machinery and control systems is underway as per our detailed plan. We’re looking forward to completing this phase and then move onto trial manufacture where we’ll be producing the finished products. Ingredients are arriving at the plant ahead of starting manufacture and it’s great to see the refurbished original warehouses starting to see some action,” Whyte said.

The company has already received interest in the project from local Tasmanian primary producers to supply ingredients and have had some preliminary discussions to date, with these discussions continuing throughout the year.

“With trials of our products underway on a variety of species on the mainland and New Zealand, we are bringing Biomar’s global best practices and nutritional know-how into our region helping to support sustainable innovation in aquaculture. This R&D work provides our state-of-the-art new facility with proven products that give us the opportunity to be much more than a salmon feed mill,” Whyte said.