A NEW cotton gin owned exclusively by potential cotton growers in the top-end of the Northern Territory and Western Australia will be operational for the 2022 ginning season.

Northern Cotton Gin (NorCott) Development Group chairman and Tipperary Station general manager, David Connolly, said the facility would be located central to all cotton growing areas in the NT and WA on land adjacent to the Sturt Hwy 35 kilometres north of Katherine.

“Cotton combined with cattle grazing will bring so much synergy to both enterprises. Northern Cotton Gin will allow cotton production and development to reach its potential. Also, we will have an ample local supply of high protein stock feed from locally-supplied cotton seed and diversification on our grazing properties,” he said.

Mr Connolly said the Northern Cotton gin would make cotton growing affordable by drastically reducing the cost of freight growers were currently paying.

Cotton production in the region has remained suppressed because the potential profits have been eaten up by having to freight the modules 3500 kilometres to Queensland cotton gins for processing.

“Module freight will be solved for all top-end growers. Right now, cotton production is thinly spread out over hundreds of kilometres across WA and NT. So, we have centrally located Northern Cotton gin near Katherine. The gin will charge every cotton grower the same cost to freight modules, regardless of the distance, to Northern Cotton gin,” he said.

Mr Connolly said Northern Cotton had all the ingredients to become a local cotton success story which had been elusive in the past.

Northern Cotton has established a business model which includes:

• Owned and controlled exclusively by all current and future cotton growers
• Plan to deliver the lowest cost of freight and ginning
• Funding has already been committed by growers for the initial build
• Designed to expand to meet future annual increasing production
• Plan to spawn a second gin when required in WA or wherever needed
• Constructed and operated by expert RivCott Ltd management and staff who have successfully built and operated two grower-owned gins in the south

Mr Connolly said the Tipperary group was fully committed to the success of Northern Cotton and the greater northern graziers and farmers.

They anticipate all current and future growers will join them to collectively own and control their own cotton gin(s) both now and in the future.

Source: Northern Cotton