The Australian Agricultural Company has officially opened Livingstone Beef in the Livingstone Valley, about 50km southeast of Darwin.
According to ABC Rural, the new abbatoir has started exporting, with the first container sent out of Darwin bound for Hong Kong.
The new facility will process up to 1000 head of cattle a day at full capacity. It will produce export beef, hides and rendered products.
Stock will be sourced from the northern areas of Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory, supporting northern Australia's cattle industry where there are currently no processing facilities.
The facility will allow cattle to be processed in northern Australia, reducing transport and freight costs as well as carcase weight loss for northern producers who currently need to truck live cattle large distances to southern processing plants.
At the launch, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said the opening was “a sign of the new hope that has returned to agriculture in Northern Australia.”
“This is the biggest private sector investment in agriculture in Northern Australia for many a long year.”
“I'm also really pleased that thanks to the Free Trade Agreements put in place by Andrew Robb under this Government, that the prospects for our agricultural exports, particularly our beef exports, have never been better.
“Soon, thanks to these Free Trade Agreements, there will be a zero tariff on Australian beef exports to Korea, a zero tariff on Australian beef exports to China and a much reduced tariff on Australian beef exports to Japan, which is our largest beef export market and all of this means that Australian cattle producers have got a magnificent opportunity to export our clean, great produce to the wider world.
“There is so much that we can do for the wider world and what we do for the wider world in beef is obviously immeasurably boosted by the opening of this fine facility here near Darwin today,” Abbott said.