IN a move characterised as reflecting a commitment to sustainable food production, big Western Australian beef outfit Harvest Road is pouring money into a plant-based alternative protein maker.
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Harvest Road is the agribusiness division of mining magnate Andrew 'Twiggy' Forrest's private investment house Tattarang. It owns WA pastoral stations, the state's biggest beef abattoir at Harvey, a very large feedlot development and aquaculture operations.
The latest Tattarang investment secures a minority stake in ProForm Foods, which started as a joint venture with the CSIRO and has an $11 million plant protein manufacturing facility in Sydney's north.
It uses patented technology called PHMC - Proform High Moisture Cooking - to make a range of chicken-style tenders, beef-style strips, burger patties and meat-style balls, all based on plant foods ingredients, 70 per cent of which are sourced in Australia.
The company, headed by former Olympic swimmer Matt Dunn, supplies other plant-based protein brands but also has its own brand, Meet.
ProFrom says it has invested more than $20m in "developing the taste and texture of plant-based meat to create products that replicate the experience of eating animal meat, with added health and environmental benefits, and a clean, short ingredient list."
It says the Harvest Road investment will see the next phase of growth accelerated and assist the company to expand its existing production facilities in Northern Sydney as it "targets further growth into domestic and international markets while continuing to strengthen its focus on locally sourced, Australian ingredients."
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The mission is to use 100 per cent locally-sourced ingredients by 2025.
The announcement of the new partnership follows ProForm Foods launching a new range of chilled-plant based meat products into Coles Supermarkets across the country, as well as within HelloFresh meal kits.
People and planet
For its part, Harvest Road says it was committed to investing in food production that benefits people and the planet.
Chief executive officer Paul Slaughter said sustainable food production that meets the growing global demand for protein was a challenge all must rise to.
"We recognise the opportunity to invest in Australian innovators who are ahead of the game in the development of high-quality, plant-based protein sources," he said.
"We are pleased to support local manufacturing and production and believe ProForm Foods is ideally placed to target further international growth using its innovative and world-leading production techniques."
Harvest Road believes Australia's plant-based market is booming, saying one in three Australians are either flexitarians or meat reducers.
That assertion, along with Proform's marketing that says plant-based meat fake meat offers 'added health and environmental benefits', is likely to irritate the wider beef producing and processing industry, which strongly contests such claims.
Twiggy Forrest is no stranger to creating controversy in beef circles. Last year, he claimed processors "really don't have great standards when it comes to the final 50 metres of an animal's life."
Cattle industry leaders said if the billionaire was looking for brand difference, that was fine but it wasn't okay to denigrate the rest of an industry, unjustly, in the process.