Hazeldene’s Chicken Farm, based in Bendigo in the Australian state of Victoria, was close to commissioning a greenfield secondary poultry processing plant. Weekly meetings had been taking place over the past twelve months and commissioning of the project was scheduled for April 21st.
Brand-new secondary process
Marel’s was to supply, install and commission a brand-new automated secondary processing line, where equipment was to be monitored and controlled by Innova PDS software. Previously Hazeldene’s had been deboning manually using a mixture of StreamLine equipment and conveyor lines made by the company themselves.
Covid-19 strikes
Installation and commissioning of the equipment, which had been manufactured in Denmark, Iceland, the Netherlands and the UK, was to involve up to thirty European engineers, some of whom were on-site when the Covid-19 lock-downs struck. They all had to return home at short notice and of course European specialists could no longer fly to Australia.