A Rockhampton meatworks will lower it carbon emissions and power bills with the help of a $4.17m grant from the Australian government, as part of its Clean Technology Food and Foundries Investment Program.
Teys Australia Meat Group has been allocated the funds for $8m worth of operational upgrades at its Rockhampton facility.
According to The Mornington Bulletin, the grant is the first of its kind in the region, and is part of a co-investment partnership between Teys Australia and the federal government
In announcing the grant, Capricornia MP Kirsten Livermore said the funds will help Teys to capitalise on export opportunities in a more evironmentally-friendly fashion.
"Four million dollars will be coming to Teys Australia here in Rockhampton to put in place plans that they've had for quite a while, to greatly reduce their carbon emmissions from the plant here and it will also have the effect of dramatically reducing their electricity costs, so they will be able to produce the meat that we are all very proud of here in Rockhampton – the beef capital.
"[It can now] produce that meat for export in a much cleaner and more efficient way, reducing carbon emissions and also in a much more cost competitive way," she said.
Livermore then said the grant is an example of the carbon price helping Australian industries to move forward.
"This is the carbon price in action. This is the carbon price working, modernising our industrial base, modernising our plant here at Teys Australia and these sorts of initiatives are taking place right around the country," she said.
Another company to benefit from the Clean Technology Food and Foundries Investment program is confectioner Robern Menz, which late last year was given a government grant of close to $500,000 to embrace green technologies at its Glynde, Adelaide Facility.