A proposed $243 million soybean processing and biodiesel plant at Port Kembla, which has just received development approval from the NSW Government, could catapault soybeans from being a minor to a major State crop.
The company behind the proposal, National Biodiesel, says the plant, to be completed by late 2010 or early 2011, will require 1.1 million tonnes of soybeans initially, rising to 1.36m tonnes after five years.
The company is capitalising on the NSW Government move in 2007 to mandate two per cent biodiesel in all diesel, rising to five per cent by 2011, and National Biodiesel says it also has the federal Environment Minister, Peter Garrett’s approval to distribute its trade-marked Soybiodiesel, blended at 20pc, with regular diesel.
National Biodiesel chairman, Edward Dutton, said the company had launched Soybiodiesel in NSW and Queensland, with strong demand coming from the mining, construction and transport industries.
(The company is marketing an equivalent product imported from North America in Port Kembla, Brisbane and Gladstone.)
NSW Lands Minister, Tony Kelly, who announced the planning approval at the site on Monday, said it would be Australia’s first soybean processing and biodiesel plant.
The plant would initially produce 288 million litres of biodiesel, as well as 850,000 tonnes of soymeal a year for the poultry and other intensive livestock industries, he said.
NSW produced only 56,000 tonnes of soybeans last summer and national production was only about 140,000t, and Australia now imports more than 500,000t of soymeal a year, mainly as high protein stock feed for intensive livestock industries.
National Biodiesel commercial director, Bradley Wheaton, said the company would have to rely strongly on imports initially but was working with the NSW and Queensland Departments of Primary Industries (DPI) to lift soybean production.
He said the company had four agronomists and planned to employ more to work with DPI staffs to promote the crop.
The company had already done this in South Africa, helping lift soybean production there from 250,000t to 450,000t a year.
Mr Wheaton said soybeans had not been able to compete for farmers’ attention here against irrigated crops like rice and cotton, mainly because there was little market for the oil.
However, the biodiesel plant would earn from both the oil and meal, lifting prices for the beans.
(In background material, the company says it expects the plant to generate $977m in revenue in its first year, with 61pc coming from the sale of soybean meal, 31pc from sales of Soybiodiesel, and five per cent from pharmaceutical grade glycerine.)
He said the company was not looking to “rock the apple cart” in cotton and rice growing areas, and envisaged much of the expanded soybean cropping would come from using it as a rotation crop rather than competing directly with rice and cottons for land and water.
As a legume it added nitrogen to the soil and could also provide a disease break for these crops.
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