Kimberley Cotton to build cotton gin in Western Australia's Kununurra

17 Sep '21

1 min read

Pic: Shutterstock

The government of Western Australia recently welcomed a significant milestone towards establishing a viable cotton industry in the state's north, with the Kimberley Cotton Company securing funds to construct a cotton processing facility in Kununurra. The Commonwealth's Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility board has approved a $32-million loan to the company to construct phase I of a cotton gin.

The cotton gin is central to the development of a sustainable cotton industry in the north, with raw cotton otherwise having to be transported interstate for processing.

The state government has long supported the initiative, providing land for the facility and $4 million towards a clean and reliable power supply and to assist the development of a business model, preliminary design work and approvals, it said in a press release.

The state is continuing to work with growers to secure the necessary approvals for farmland that will support the development of the cotton industry in the Ord River Irrigation Area.

A recent study has shown a new cotton gin could create more than 1,000 direct and indirect local jobs in its first 10 years, generating $1.19 billion in cotton lint exports and flow-on value adding benefits from the cotton seed by-product as a livestock feed.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)

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