INDUSTRY NEWS
Almondco history
Almondco was founded by the pioneering families of the Australian almond industry in 1944 . What started out as a co-operative of likeminded growers in the southern vales of Adelaide has become a major dedicated almond business on the world stage , with the Almondco brand renowned for producing some of the highest quality almond products . More than 50 member growers now supply Almondco across all major growing regions
– the Riverland and Northern Adelaide Plains in South Australia , the Riverina in New South Wales , Mildura / Sunraysia area in Victoria and the Swan Region in Western Australia . Almondco provides key processing facilities for its grower members in the Riverland South Australia and Riverina , NSW . Almondco Australia is a dedicated memberowned business offering an extensive range of premium quality , almond based bulk products to the international marketplace . products that have the almond skin removed . Mr Woolston said the high-capacity blanching value add facility included the latest food handling processing equipment and full automation of the packing , conveying and palletising of a range of bulk blanched value-added products simultaneously . “ What we used to process in one shift can now be done in an hour across the product range with no manual handling . It has ensured we can meet our customer needs and be export competitive in the international market ,” he said . Wastewater from the blanching process is now being put through a dedicated wastewater treatment plant , with the recycled water used on the well-presented grounds at Almondco . The 10,500m2 sustainably built raw material warehouse enables up to 28,000 bins or approximately 13,000mt of almond kernels to be securely stored on site ready for final processing and packing . Work on these facilities started in 2019 through a $ 25.8 million SA Government loan for what was known as Project Enhance – a dedicated blanching processing facility and the high-tech wastewater treatment plant , while the second $ 8.1 million loan was provided in February 2022 for Project
Optimise , the new logistics center and raw material warehouse . “ These projects were timely for our community , providing a large amount of work for many local contractors ,” Mr Woolston said . While there were logistical challenges due to the coronavirus pandemic , Mr Woolston said it was rewarding for everyone involved to see these large infrastructure projects come together . “ We couldn ’ t get overseas technicians to help us install equipment , so our project team had to innovate and use virtual reality technology to make sure everything was installed and connected correctly ,” he said .
industry . australianalmonds . com . au
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