The Red Meat Action Group (RMAG) — a group of farmers — is planning a development encompassing a feedlot, service kill abattoir, tallow/biofuel plant, hide and effluent processing.

RMAG chairman Gary Buller said four potential sites were being evaluated: Collie, Capel, Elgin and Dardanup.

“There has to be a significant area of land that has buffers and no urban encroachment whatsoever,” Mr Buller said. “Once the site has been determined, government will need to ensure there is no encroachment. The agricultural department is busily trying to identify suitable sites.

“We have found a site, but can’t reveal which one that is. Things are a bit sensitive at the moment and we will need to make expressions of interest,” he said.

“There is a site that has been mooted in the Collie area and that ticks all the boxes and it could easily be Shotts Industrial Park.”

The concept plan, which included an artist’s impression of the precinct, was launched at a function in Bunbury on Friday. Getting it so far it was quite an achievement, Mr Buller said.

It involved two years of hard work and talks with lotfeeders, processors, the Department of Agriculture, consultants, Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) and other producers. The idea followed a beef crisis meeting in 2007.

“One of the things to come from all our research and discussion was the realisation that WA leads the nation in inefficient processing plants,” Mr Buller said. “That is why producers in the east get 25-50 cents per kilogram more than WA producers and why processors in the east can still afford to sell meat for less than WA.”