Tassal Group Limited (ASX:TGR) has acquired Mid Farm, an 800-hectare property neighbouring the company’s existing Proserpine prawn farm and Billy Creek property in north Queensland.
The Mid Farm acquisition allows Tassal to successfully integrate its farm holdings to underpin future prawn production and this area will be known as the Proserpine farming precinct.
Besides this, the company has also sold all its surplus land at Exmoor Station.
Sitting between the company’s Proserpine and Billy Creek properties, Mid Farm provides the potential for further pond production capacity, increased operational efficiencies and effective best practice biosecurity measures.
Potential to improve operational aspects
Tassal managing director & CEO Mark Ryan said: “Securing Mid Farm, which is located between our Proserpine farm and Billy Creek property, creates the potential to substantially improve operational aspects for the whole Proserpine farming precinct.
“The completion of these property acquisitions provides the foundation for Tassal’s Strategic platform to deliver 20,000 tonnes of annual prawn production.”
Surplus land divested
In line with actively managing the company’s property assets, Tassal has divested all of the surplus land at Exmoor Station.
However, the company has retained the most productive and economical land parcels at Exmoor Station for future farming development.
Pursuant to the divestment, these transactions will be net cash positive for FY2021, with funds from divesting surplus land at Exmoor Station financing the purchases of Billy Creek and Mid Farm.
Largest prawn farm
The geographical diversity of Tassal’s prawn farms results in water quality being one of the cleanest and highest quality in the industry, while allowing it to harvest fresh Australian grown prawns over an extended season from November through to May.
The acquisition will further enhance Proserpine, which is Tassal’s largest prawn farm, with more than 200 hectares of land-based pond systems across the site.
Tassal’s Proserpine prawn farm received the internationally renowned third-party Best Aquaculture Practices certification in October 2019.
The company’s website explains: “Sustainability is at the core of all that we do at Tassal Group, and farming prawns is no different.
“We believe that it is our role to protect the environment that we operate in, ensuring that the prawns that we supply are of the highest quality and produced so that our consumers can enjoy them now and into the future.”