Many of the remaining staff will be offered relocation to Melbourne, where the company plans to build a new processing plant, to be production-ready by April 1, but about 10 people will continue to work at Cressy to receive poppy product from Tasmanian growers.

The company is looking at three potential sites in the greater Melbourne area.

TPI managing director Jarrod Ritchie yesterday fronted the media to answer questions about the move.

He said that when the company yesterday morning informed staff of its decision to relocate, the news had not come as a ‘‘total surprise’’.

‘‘Our Tasmanian agricultural farming operation will remain the same, but regrettably, (the move) will involve the immediate redundancy of approximately 11 people,’’ he told the media pack.

‘‘The relocation will allow us access to raw material that we haven’t had access to in the past.

‘‘We’ve been in dialogue with the previous government and the current government about the risks associated with growing in one geography.

‘‘Unfortunately, that risk has been heightened by a number of adverse weather events and we felt we had to make a decision — the Victorian policy gave us a framework by which we could mitigate that growing risk.’’

Mr Ritchie would not be drawn on whether or not either a Liberal of Labor state government could have done more to ensure TPI stayed in Tasmania.

‘‘I can only deal with the here and nows,’’ he said.

‘‘(But) the Victorian government’s policy gives us that flexibility to source raw material from Tasmania, Victoria, the Northern Territory and our Portugal operations — the current policy in Tasmania means we’re unable to have the same benefits as our Victorian competitor.’’

Mr Ritchie said that TPI had about 700 hectares of poppies in the ground in Victoria and hoped to have 3000 hectares in Tasmania when planting finished for this season.

The company hoped to expand to 10,000 hectares over time, with 4000 next year in Tasmania, he said.

Mr Ritchie said that he would today meet with each employee individually.