JBS’s Australia business is planning to build a new B2B ingredients processing site in Melbourne.
The Brazil-headquartered meat giant told Just Food that the proposed “Protein Recovery Facility” will produce tallow, oil and high protein meal from porcine by-products through a “modern continuous dry rendering process”.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
The owner of the Primo and Swift brands said that ingredients such as tallow and protein meal are supplied “domestically and internationally” into “the food, pharmaceutical, animal nutrition and manufacturing sectors”.
The site’s processing capacity is expected to be “15t per hour, or approximately 200t per day”, the group told Just Food.
It added that the construction schedule “is still being finalised and will be confirmed following completion of all required regulatory approvals”.
Similarly, production start dates will be released later: “These timelines will be announced once approvals are in place and construction planning is complete.”
US Tariffs are shifting - will you react or anticipate?
Don’t let policy changes catch you off guard. Stay proactive with real-time data and expert analysis.
By GlobalDataThe project is designed to sit alongside JBS’ existing pork operations at Laverton.
“About five full time [staff will work] in the new Protein Recovery Facility with other services supported by our existing Pork plant at Laverton,” the company said.
JBS positioned the investment as both a supply-chain efficiency move and an environmental upgrade for the area, pointing to modern controls around odour and wastewater.
The new facility is expected to “deliver a modern, purpose built, best-practice Protein Recovery Facility, designed to meet today’s stringent odour, wastewater and environmental performance standards,” it said.
It also aims to reduce movements of raw material by road and limit exposure to air.
JBS explained the site would “use enclosed transfer systems, including a sealed pipeline connected to the adjacent abattoir, reducing truck movements and minimising exposure of raw material to air”.
More broadly, the company said the facility would “support efficient, vertically-integrated processing and help ensure long-term sustainability of the pork supply chain.”
The proposed facility adds to a run of investments and operational moves by JBS across the region and globally.
In July 2024, the group committed A$110m ($73.6m at the time) to Huon Aquaculture’s land-based Whale Point farm in Tasmania, including plans for a hatchery capable of rearing seven million fish.
More recently, JBS also expanded market activity in the nearby region, shipping its first beef consignment to Vietnam in July 2025.
Earlier this year, the meat processing major revealed plans to build its presence in the Middle East via a new joint venture in Oman with Oman Food Capital, the investment arm of the Oman Investment Authority.
In the US, the company recently closed a case-ready plant: the Swift Beef Company facility in Riverside shut on 2 February, impacting more than 300 jobs.
In Australia, JBS said it remains the country’s largest meat and food processor, with “around 17,000 team members” and a footprint that includes “19 meat processing facilities… six cattle feed lots, 19 piggeries, as well as nine Salmon hatcheries and three Salmon farming regions”.
