THE Kangaroo Island abattoir is showing signs of life 15 years after it closed down.
Samex Australian Meat Company bought the property earlier this year and recently held a series of meetings with local lamb producers to gauge interest, and work out if enough lambs can be produced to ensure viability in the facility.
Managing director Rob Black said at the meeting that a combined throughput of 5000 sheep and lambs would be needed each week, over a nine to 10-month period, to sustain the operation.
When contacted by this newspaper, he said it was premature to discuss anything at present.
KI Futures Authority general manager Kristina Roberts said her organisation was facilitating the discussion between producers and the processor.
"We are here to build economic and social prosperity on the island," she said.
"It is very early days but the dialogue has been encouraging.
"The real issue is whether producers can change their current production of lambs from four to five months of the year to the required nine to 10 months.
"Both parties need to come to agreement collectively."
Ms Roberts said preliminary investigations were also being carried out on access to power, water and regulatory requirements.
"Rob spoke of 50 people being employed by the abattoir," she said.
"If we can attract 10 more people or families to the island, it has a multiplier effect, and will result in huge benefits to the island's economy.
"The agriculture industry on the island is already worth $70 million plus, so this will add value to that figure."
Agriculture KI chairman Andrew Heinrich, who chaired the public consultation meeting late last month, said some producers were keen on the concept.
"It's a hard one," he said.
"On KI we go from feast to famine when it comes to lamb. We get a big flush of lambs from October to Christmas and many are sold as store lambs.
"There has also been a swing away from prime lambs in the past year back to woolgrowing."
Mr Heinrich said the island's sheep flock now sat at 0.6 million, down significantly from 1.6m a decade ago.
But with cropping becoming increasingly popular, a lot more broad beans were going in this year, which could help if farmers decided to switch to feedlotting lambs and selling them at heavier weights.
"There is definite excitement," Mr Heinrich said.
"Rob Black said if all the boxes were ticked, the abattoir could start up as early as November."
At another small meeting of producers on Tuesday night, Mr Heinrich said they would definitely be able to commit to supplying 100,000 lambs.
"We are definitely keen and we would love to make it work," he said.
"But Rob wanted 200,000 lambs, and possibly mutton, which I think is unrealistic at this stage. The numbers of sheep just aren't here.
"You could possibly top up numbers from the mainland, which is what they used to do, as the freight coming back is a lot cheaper."
*Full report in Stock Journal, May 2 issue, 2013.
