Canning Vale Food Value Add Precinct

The City of Canning engaged the Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC) to assess the economic case and potential opportunities of a food value add precinct in the Canning Vale industrial area.

This report, Canning Vale Food Value Add Precinct, assesses the economic feasibility of the precinct and recommends viable steps for its implementation, using a Smart Specialisation approach.

The research finds:

• There are more than 21,000 jobs in food-related activites in the City of Canning, and the Canning Vale industrial precinct employs 3,000 of them.
• Canning Vale has the highest number of businesses in wholesale trade, employing 47 times more workers in produce warehousing compared to the average Australian region.
• Canning Vale has an advantage in food-related activities and it possesses the capabilities to foster new ventures.
• The Canning region has the highest industry diversity in Western Australia and the fourth most diverse number of industries in Australia.
• The Canning Vale precinct has excellent proximity to main infrastructure, including the Jandakot airport and the international airport.
• Canning Vale enjoys competitive advantage in fruit and vegetable wholesaling, bread manufacturing and seafood processing.

Overall, Canning Vale is well positioned to develop a food value add precinct; it has most of the main infrastructure that would enable business to locate in the area but also the industrial capabilities that would foster the development of food value add related activities.

A food manufacturing precinct could see businesses in Canning Vale operate from a centralised site to cut production costs and improve efficiency, capitalising on complementarities with other major food value initiatives such as the Western Australian Food Innovation Precinct in Peel.

The research found that if implemented correctly, the precinct could bring more than $135 million in gross value add (GVA) per year and up to 680 new workers to the area by 2033.