Ardent Foods will build three processing plants in the Aldenne Valley over the next four years, a $340m investment the company says will create 1,100 permanent jobs in a region reeling from its driest summer on record.
The plants — a grain mill at Aldenne Bridge, a vegetable-processing site near Ferrow, and a cold-chain hub on the valley’s rail spine — will source under five-season contracts that guarantee purchase volumes and floor prices for around 600 local holdings.
“Farmers cannot invest in resilience on one-season horizons. Neither can we,” said chief executive Milan Orvet, framing the contracts as the company’s answer to a supply base destabilised by drought and price swings.
The Growers’ Association, in the middle of a hard season, offered a wary welcome: guaranteed volumes “change the mathematics of survival”, said president Corin Maas, while cautioning that floor prices “must track costs, not press releases”.
Regional officials confirmed the sites qualify for accelerated planning under the rural investment framework, with the mill targeted to open in late 2028. Ardent shares rose 3.1 per cent on the announcement to a twelve-month high.
