The Department of Primary Industry and Regional Development and the Peel Development Commission have been working collaboratively with GHD to identify the industry needs for the Peel Business Park. Attracting businesses to establish themselves in the Peel Business Park means understanding and accommodating the future needs of target industries. A transition investigation of the metropolitan food and agriculture industry was therefore undertaken to assist with understanding these needs as well as facilitating decisions by existing Western Australian food industries, and related support industries, regarding a future relocation to the Peel Business Park.
The Peel Business Park, located 10 kilometres north-east of Mandurah, is part of the Transform Peel project and will cater for agri-food and agri-processing operators, as well as ancillary light, general transport and logistic industries.
The transition investigation process began with the identification and mapping of agri-food businesses under pressure to relocate. The needs of these established businesses, as well as emerging agri-food businesses, were then profiled identifying factors such as land availability, access to transport and energy infrastructure, water requirements, as well as services and common use facilities. A review of the suitability of the precinct design, servicing and associated infrastructure was then undertaken along with the consideration of incentives to encourage relocation. Finally, ground-truth findings were substantiated through consultation with local agri-food businesses.
The investigation revealed that the most common business categories were gourmet food, fresh produce, meat, seafood, food wholesale, baking, oils, exporter/importer and packaging. An interesting array of new or emerging businesses were profiled including premium/organic food processing incubator, vertical farming, medicinal honey processing, online grocery and meal delivery, non-meat protein and nutraceuticals.
The development of the Transition Strategy will help ensure that the Peel Business Park meets the future needs of the WA agri-food companies, through the provision of appropriate infrastructure and headworks, servicing, common use facilities and incentives.
This article was first published in the Peel Magazine, Spring/Summer 2018 – vol 4.2 – to read and download the full magazine, click here.