04 May 2023
FermenTasmania is seeking Expressions of Interest from all who might have a fermentation idea, business, or interest to support the building of the fermentation centre of excellence in the Tamar Valley.
At the cutting edge
Fermentation has the potential to disrupt and transform our food to create a food future full of possibility. Fermentation Tasmania is hard at work building a hub in the Tamar Valley that will provide space, equipment, training, and skills that will value add to local produce and explore the boundaries of alternative proteins.
Core to everything is collaboration and consultation, therefore we need you to tell us what you need, and what ideas and dreams you have by completing an expression of interest FermenTas
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FermenTas is a not-for-profit company designed to add capacity to the Agrifood and beverage industry by local value-adding to primary produce.
The centre of excellence we call the Fermentation Hub is situated 10km from the CBD of Launceston, a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy, and the gateway to the Tamar Valley.
FermenTas is based on a Cluster Economic Development model which emphasises collaborating to grow the wider industry that is self-sustaining through the Fermentation Hub. This is where a community working in a shared facility will not only bring business and cross-training opportunities but the sparks of innovation will fly. Bringing in new technology such as Precision Fermentation, will allow real forward thinking to address global issues around food justice and feeding the world. We need to value our waste streams and look at how we can use out-of-spec. produce to create fermented vegetable products and our own production waste can provide energy to the facility through anaerobic fermentation.
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The Fermentation Hub will be a true quadruple helix operation led by industry but with important stakeholders in academia and education including UTas and TasTAFE, government, and of course the community.
While the Hub is essentially a sexy 1800sqm shed inside is where the magic happens with production facilities allowing for:
• winemaking, brewing, cider making, distilling;
• dairy processing;
• fermentation kitchen for fermented vegetable and fruit products;
• sourdough bakery;
alongside areas for:
• Education and hands-on learning opportunities;
• Laboratories for testing and training;
• Sensory Lab for market testing;
• CoWork space;
• Retail.
Put the agents of fermentation, the yeast, and bacteria to work and we have a world of microbes, an ecosystem that produces essential food from probiotics, cheese, and pickles, to beer, wine, coffee, and bread. Add in the people and state-of-the-art facilities and we will have a Fermentation Hub that is about realising ideas from:
• New Product Development to create a new business or help diversify or scale up an existing one
• Skills and training opportunities, currently in Tasmania alone we have 350 jobs needing trained staff
• Commercially focussed research to address those wicked problems and take advantage of opportunities
• Hands-on agritourism experiences
• Showcase of circular economy in action for food production
• Global outreach particularly through the recent UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy denomination for Launceston.
Help us deliver what you need at www.fermentasmania.com and fill in the form or send us an email to info@fermentasmania.com…we look forward to working with you!
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