A South East Queensland organic grain producer is set to reach broader product markets and create new jobs thanks to funding from the Palaszczuk Government.
Minister for Agricultural Industry Development and Fisheries Mark Furner said Kialla Pure Foods is just one of 15 businesses in Queensland to receive a $250,000 co-contribution Rural Economic Development (RED) Grant to improve the current operations of the business.
"Kialla Pure Foods is a popular producer of GMO free, organic products including baking flour, specialty flour and premixes," Mr Furner said.
"The funding will be used to upgrade their current blending system by installing a new mixer and packaging system at the Greenmount-based mill.
"The project is expected to create eight new jobs after the installation of the new mixer."
Managing Director Quentin Kennedy said the new mixer would create new job opportunities within the company while continuing its support of grain producers across the state.
"Kialla Pure Foods currently sources its grain from 30 farmers located across the Darling Downs and to the north around Theodore, Springsure, Emerald and Capella," Mr Kennedy said.
"We will have four new staff in the production area, a supervisor, a shared role between quality assurance and control operations and administration and a role will also be required in product research and development."
Mr Kennedy said the new blending system is a crucial upgrade to improve quality control, reduce costs and increase output capacity.
"The new mixer will allow for effective clean downs between runs allowing us to avoid cross contamination between products which is highly important when working with organic materials," he said.
"It will also have additional critical control points that will assist in ensuring any foreign contaminants will be removed."
The new packaging system will allow Kialla Pure Foods to keep up with consumer trends by packaging their mixes in popular doy bags.
"With an automated packing system, we will be able to pack our mixes into either one litre bottles for our very successful 'Shake and Pour' pancake mixes or into doy bag re-sealable stand-up pouches which are currently in high demand in retail outlets," Mr Kennedy said.
The Rural Economic Development Grants program offers emerging projects up to $250,000 in co-contributions to build industry and grow employment opportunities across the agricultural sector. The $10 million grants program provides for three funding rounds over a three-year period ending 2021.
A total of 15 businesses have received $3.3 million under the first-round of funding for the RED Grants program. Overall these 15 projects are expected to create over 600 jobs across the agricultural sector in regional Queensland.
Funding for Round 2 of the RED Grants will be announced later this year.
The recent State Budget locked in funding for the remaining rounds of the program, taking the total amount of grants available up to $10 million.
"This program represents the Palaszczuk Government investing in regional jobs now and for the future," Mr Furner said.
"By supporting regional businesses today we are helping them expand and growing our economy for the future."
The Queensland Rural and Industry Development Authority (QRIDA) administer the RED Grant scheme on behalf of the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries.
