Huge abattoir worth up to $87 million planned for Guyra could create hundreds of jobs

If approved, developers New England Innovation and Development Pty Ltd (NEID) will move onto finding investors for the project, which is expected to create more than 220 jobs.

It would be built about 40km north of Armidale on a 80 hectare patch of land on Falconer Road at Gurya, just off of the New England Highway.

The abattoir would, at first, be built to process 448,000 sheep and lambs and nearly 44,000 cattle per year.

However, there are plans for the facility to expand to take in more than one million sheep and lambs, and close to 90,000 cattle.

Chair of NEID, Rob Taber, said the community had so far shown great support for the plans, even though there were some concerns.

"If you talk to the Guyra people in particular, they're really keen to get behind our project," he said.

"There used to be an abattoir in Guyra years ago and when that closed the town really did suffer badly, and they understand how a facility like this will really improve Guyra and bring people back into Guyra again.

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"When we put the first DA into council we only got one complaint, and we answered all those questions and got that sorted, but the rest of the community were very positive."

Mr Taber revealed the plant had been in the works for five years already, and was initially destined to be closer to Armidale.

A pre-feasibility study and full feasibility study have already been undertaken, which Mr Taber said proved the project was viable.

If built, it would be an ultra-modern complex which would target meat markets in China, Europe, the Middle East and the USA.

"It certainly would end up being a state-of-the-art facility, using some robots, which we believe is the way the meat industry is going to work in the future," he said.

If approved, the site is expected to take 12 months to be constructed.

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