Brazilian agribusiness giant Minerva Foods failed to mention it has closed both of its Western Australian abattoirs in its quarterly financial update released to shareholders last week.
Brazilian agribusiness giant Minerva Foods failed to mention it has closed both of its Western Australian abattoirs in its quarterly financial update released to shareholders last week.
The company closed its Shark Lake abattoir in Esperance in late 2023 and its Tammin abattoir this year.
Both processed sheep and lamb.
In both instances, Minerva provided a near-identical message to stakeholders in the hours prior to closure that the company would weigh-up the facilities’ futures.
“MFA have taken the decision to undertake a review of operations at Tammin to fully analyse what further investment is needed,” Minerva Foods Australia chief executive Jason McPhail said in a statement in January.
“Where possible, staff will be redeployed to other facilities in the MFA group with a small number taking up redundancies.
“All existing meat orders will be fulfilled by MFA through their operations in Victoria.”
Minerva has no other operating facilities in WA.
Communities and stakeholders reliant on both facilities have spoken of being blindsided by the decisions, and of hearing nothing from Minerva since the closures.
In an update published to the Brazilian stock exchange on Thursday last week, Minerva Foods told shareholders it had four production centres in Australia.
“The company has four plants in Australia with a daily capacity of 19,216 head,” the statement said.
Nowhere was it mentioned two of those abattoirs were mothballed.
Minerva has not stated in its market communications that half of its Australian production capacity was offline, as far as Business News can tell.
The company’s media and executive staff in Australia and overseas have not responded to more than eight months of calls, emails or social media messages to discuss the closures.
Minerva’s quarterly financials suggest the Australian operation was performing strongly.
Minerva Foods Australia’s sheep slaughter increased 16 per cent to 1 million head in the last quarter and totalled 3.7 million head for the year.
Revenue was up 40 per cent to 619.7 million Brazilian real ($173 million) for the quarter, and up 18 per cent to R$2.3 billion ($651.5 million) for the year.
Australia accounted for about 6 per cent of Minerva Foods’ global revenue in 2024.
Business News understands Minerva cut senior staff roles in WA last year.
Mr McPhail was contacted for comment.
