A Werribee South company is behind a multi-million-dollar plan to develop an environmentally friendly farm at Avalon that is tipped to produce 30,000 tonnes of vegetables a year by 2021.
Duncans Road-based vegetable outfit Fresh Select has joined recycling company Mercer and Stokes, and power generation specialists HRL Developments in Sustainable Farms to create the 371-hectare farm.
The development, to be built near the Princes Freeway, is expected to create more than 1000 jobs and generate $160 million a year for the local economy.
Sustainable Farms spokesman Barry Dungey said the farm would chip and consume unprocessed timber to produce heating steam and electricity to power up to 60 hectares of hydroponic glasshouses.
He said that once the farm was fully operational, it would be able to produce 120-megawatt hours of energy and process 220,000 tonnes of timber a year.
The farm will be built in six stages over seven years. The first stage is due to be completed by mid-2016, subject to state government and Environment Protection Authority approvals.
Mr Dungey said the first stage would include 10 hectares of glasshouses, an energy centre and recycling plant.
“The hydroponic glasshouse facility will be based on best-practice design principles now in use in a wide range of similar plants in Europe, allowing for the production of tonnes of vegetables all year round, with minimum impact to the environment,” he said.
“Our protected cropping technology also allows us to minimise and potentially remove the use of pesticides and reduce the use of resources such as water and fertilisers compared with field-grown produce.”
Mr Dungey has called on the government and EPA to fast-track planning approval for the project.
“The consortium is ready to deliver jobs and economic growth, but we require the planning process for this development to be completed in a timely manner,” he said.
