AACo stops work on $85m Top End abattoir

The Australian Agricultural Company (AACo) has stopped work on the construction of a major meatworks south of Darwin.

The company is in the process of building one of the largest abattoirs in northern Australia at the Livingstone site.

The $85 million abattoir and meat packing facility is expected to process about 200,000 head of cattle a year when fully operational.

An AACo spokesman says headworks at the site have been completed and other construction will resume shortly.

The stoppage coincides with the cattle company placing two of its properties on the market.

The $85 million abattoir and meat packing facility is expected to process about 200,000 head of cattle a year when fully operational.

Brighton Downs is a 420,000 hectare cattle station near Winton in Queensland.

Adelong is a 5,200 hectare dryland farming and grazing property at Comet in Queensland.

Industry sources have suggested the move is because the company wants to use equity from the sales to inject cash into the abattoir.

Sunbuild, which was contracted for civil works at the abattoir site, said it was unable to comment.

AACo has long been expressing its desire to find a foreign investor to take a share in the Territory abattoir project.

Chief executive David Farley says the company's preference would be to have an Asian investor alongside it.

Source: ABC News, 19 April 2013