March 7, 2014
Kingaroy is known as the peanut capital of Australia, but the way things are looking at Proteco Gold, perhaps the town should be adding almonds to the tourist signboards.
Proteco this week installed two massive tanks – with a combined storage capacity of 180,000 litres – just to handle almond oil.
The tanks, which would be worth $300,000 to replace, were manouevred into position on the side of the old butter factory in William Street with the help of three cranes.
The tallest of the pair is about 15m high.
The tanks were transported to Kingaroy from near Newcastle in NSW on low-loaders.
Proteco Gold owner Josh Gadischke said the tanks would provide extra capacity which would allow increased production and more production shifts.
“Almonds have been a good addition for our growth over the past 12 months,” Josh said.
Proteco is using a local carrier to truck in the almonds in roadtrains from South Australia.
The nuts are then crushed for their oil and sold into the Australian and international cosmetic industries, especially to ingredient suppliers in France and Spain.
The oil is exported in special flexi tanks inside shipping containers; each bladder can hold 24,000 litres.
At the moment Proteco Gold is exporting crude almond oil but Josh said the company was looking at value-adding the product with further refining.
As well as almond oil, Proteco is also enjoying export growth in its other speciality oil lines, especially in Asia.
Other oils produced by the company include avocado, olive, apricot kernel, macadamia, peanut, pumpkin seed, sunflower, walnut, safflower, sesame, flaxseed and cod liver.
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