Alstonville-based macadamia facility, Oneva Holdings has been working with local farmers and chefs to create unique food products over the past few years - and non-dairy based cheeses are one of the innovative products they now produce locally.

So, the news that $100,000 of Federal Government funding was arriving for facility upgrades was welcomed - and means more jobs for locals are on the way (and more cheese).

Federal Member for Page Kevin Hogan said the funding to upgrade manufacturing equipment would be used to purchase a large mixer and depositor - and create a new semi-automatic product line.

“Oneva is an exciting business that value-adds to local produce and sells it around the world, as well as here in Australia,” Mr Hogan said.

“The new equipment has already delivered efficiency in the production of cheese and pastry products and has provided new capabilities to fast track new product development.”

“Oneva is also trialling a collaborative business model, where they offer incubation services for food entrepreneurs and to help them build up their production capacity.”

“I secured a $150,000 grant a few years back for Oneva to expand their facility, this allowed them to develop a range of non-dairy based ‘cheeses’, creating new local jobs in the process.”

“It was great to drop into the site again to see how much the business has grown.”

The Federal Government has contributed $100,000 towards this project and Oneva Holdings have matched this contribution.