Westpork restarts plans at Moora for $28 million piggery development

WA’s biggest pork producer has dusted off plans for a $28 million piggery development in the State’s Wheatbelt, which will produce 62,000 pigs a year and generate enough renewable energy to power itself and hundreds of households. Westpork’s development at Moora involves technology to capture methane from pig effluent, which, along with two planned wind turbines and solar power infrastructure, will produce 3.6MW of energy a year. Westpork chief executive Neil Ferguson said the 2800-sow piggery would use about a third of the generated power, the rest being sold to direct neighbours and into the Western Power grid. Mr Ferguson said Westpork started plans and gained approval for the piggery on its 1800ha site, 32km west of Moora, in the Shire of Dandaragan, in 2017. But in 2018 it parked them because of an oversupply of pork, which led to severely depressed prices. “A few years ago there was an oversupply and at that point we had no appetite to produce more pigs,” Mr Ferguson said. “The pork industry is in a much stronger position now. Pork is very attractively priced compared to other proteins, which is driving an increase in demand. In WA, supermarket pork is selling at $20/kg, while scotch fillet steak is closer to $43/kg. “Small-goods processors are also using less imported pork in favour of local product, which is also helping drive demand.” The extra pigs will ramp up Westpork’s existing annual production of 390,000 by about 15 per cent. Westpork produces half of WA’s pigs, and in the 2019 financial year the private company posted a $8.28m profit after tax, according to filings with the corporate watchdog. Mr Ferguson said groundwork construction for the new piggery would start within weeks and be complete by May 2022, with the first pigs ready for processing by September that year. The facility will create 28 full-time jobs. Mr Ferguson said in terms of renewable energy, wind turbines would create 2MW, solar 0.6MW, and methane 1MW, but the piggery would use less than a third of this amount. It would have 0.5MW of battery storage. According to the Climate Council, 1MW can can power about 300 households for a year. The excess energy created could therefore supply almost the full 875 households in the town of Moora. The three combined energy sources would also lead to 16,500 tonnes of carbon abatement, and would be eligible for carbon credits, Mr Ferguson said.