Melbourne: Australian Agricultural Company (AAco), country's largest beef producer, is eyeing Indian labour market to fill up 260 position at its AUD 80 million abattoir located in Darwin. According business daily 'Australian Financial Review' report, AAco chief executive David Farley said the company had been working on a plan for 18 months which includes importing workers on 457 and 417 visas from India. "If we go into this project with fear of unions and industrial problems then I shouldn't be starting this project," Farley told the daily recently. "We want to run a safe, fair and equitable plant that offers long-term employment opportunities for people and therefore we need a productive workforce and if we go into this project with that philosophy we will be there for a long time. "The company has confirmed it acquired a 600 hectare property for AUD 13.27 million and would release a market tender to build the facility within 60 days. Farley said India would be the main country where it would seek the skilled meat-manufacturing labour. "India will be key, but of course we have a relationship with IFFCO which kills about 3.5 million buffalo a year - so we have a bit of access to the skills there," he said. IFFCO is a major Malaysian shareholder in AAco. Farley said he wanted to have a "good domestic content" but "we will also be looking to bring in people from offshore". He said the company was putting together several applications to the government for the visas. A spokesman for Minister for Immigration and Citizenship Chris Bowen said the applications would be assessed in the usual manner. "Each application will be assessed on its merits by a case-by-case basis against the 457 criteria," he said.