How many people would Cenagen's greenhouse likely employ?

Cenagen has attributed around 240–260 full-time jobs to its proposed 10-hectare greenhouse.
Available benchmarks suggest that this may be a considerable overestimate. 

Cenagen’s published materials say the Kandos development would create 300–350 permanent full-time jobs overall, but do not provide a breakdown between the greenhouse and the industrial operation. At public consultation sessions, however, Cenagen representatives attributed approximately 260 jobs to the greenhouse in December 2025 and approximately 240 in February 2026.¹ ²

Benchmarks from comparable greenhouse operations suggest that a substantially lower figure is more likely. The most credible central range is approximately 80–100 full-time-equivalent positions (FTE). Even allowing for labour-intensive crops, extensive packing and support work, and no sharing of staff with the rest of the Cenagen facility, a generous upper-end estimate is approximately 130–160 FTE.

The most directly relevant general Australian benchmark is approximately seven FTE per hectare in a high-technology greenhouse, or around 70 FTE for 10 hectares. This excludes packing and other work performed outside the greenhouse itself.³ Cenagen also proposes grading, packaging, cool storage and distribution, so an allowance must be made for those roles.¹

Crop choice also matters. Cenagen lists vegetables including capsicum, cucumbers and tomatoes, as well as cut flowers such as gerberas, chrysanthemums and lilies. Capsicum and cucumbers generally require less labour than tomatoes. Cut flowers can involve more manual harvesting, sorting and packing; gerbera harvesting, for example, is recognised as labour-intensive.⁴

A useful real-world comparison is SPL, a large New Zealand glasshouse business. SPL operates 26 hectares of glasshouses, growing mainly capsicums with some snacking cucumbers. It reports 130 permanent staff and 68 seasonal workers. Its employment page also describes glasshouse and packhouse work, as well as finance, administration, maintenance and management roles.⁵

That is a total headcount of 198, or 7.6 people per hectare—equivalent to about 76 people for 10 hectares. Because 68 are seasonal workers, this is a headcount rather than an annual FTE figure. SPL is not a perfect comparison: its crop mix is at the lower-labour end and it reports significant investment in automation. It is nevertheless useful because its published numbers cover the wider operation rather than greenhouse-floor work alone.

Allowing for both greenhouse-floor and associated work gives the following broad scenarios.³ ⁴ ⁶ 

• Capsicum/cucumber-heavy mix, including support work – about 60–85 FTE

• Normal high-technology vegetable operation, including growing, picking, packing and management – about 80–100 FTE

• Labour-intensive tomato or mixed-crop operation with substantial packing – about 100–133 FTE

• Generous high-employment Australian case – about 133–158 FTE

[These are broad benchmarks, not forecasts. They assume a modern high-technology greenhouse and include an allowance for grading, packaging, cool storage, management and distribution. They also assume that the greenhouse has its own management and support staff, with no staffing efficiencies from sharing roles with the rest of the Cenagen operation.]

These figures do not prove that 240–260 permanent full-time greenhouse jobs are impossible – but they do show that reaching that number would require a staffing level well above the comparable Australian and New Zealand examples we've been able to find.

Cenagen would need to publish a crop-by-crop staffing plan—including growing, harvesting, packing, warehousing, maintenance, administration and logistics—before its greenhouse employment figure could be independently assessed and reasonably relied upon.