Mossman soy sauce plant staff facing possible job losses

Staff and shareholders of a speciality soy sauce processing plant attached to the Mossman Sugar Mill are awaiting news of their future, in a restructure which is reported to have already resulted in a loss of jobs.

The company, CocoNutZ Australia Pty Ltd started processing the thick Indonesian cooking sauce ‘kecap manis’ using cane sugar about two years ago.

It said at the time that demand for kecap manis, based traditionally on coconut sugar, was growing annually, and that CocoNutZ Australia would replace coconut sugar in the manufacturing of the product with its own bio-transformed sugar cane juice in a patented process.

But 10 days ago, CocoNutZ Australia – founded by a Singapore-based food tech start up and the Mossman Mill, which owns 23 per cent – made a ‘declaration of solvency’ to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

Management at the Mill would not comment on the April 11 solvency declaration, other than to say that CocoNutZ Australia Pty Ltd was undergoing a “change of control”, and that “everything will be known to shareholders and staff” within the next two to three weeks.

Newsport has heard reports from a contact of one employee that at least four staff have been offered redundancies.

The company’s Linkedin page does not contain any information about the restructure, but it has a couple of paragraphs outlining its visions and objectives:

“Our innovative platform has created sweeteners developed from Future Fit Crops which can be grown on degraded lands to make Kecap Manis and Gula Kelapa, amongst other condiments. Our purpose is to create nutritious, sustainable, and tasty foods that nourish us and nurture the Earth. We are driven by innovation, inclusion, courage, and enthusiasm - and the belief in the power of remarkable people.”