Northern Territory’s first cotton gin officially opens near Katherine

The Northern Territory’s first cotton gin has been officially opened today north of Katherine.

The gin cost about $70 million to build and means NT growers will no longer have to transport their crop thousands of kilometres to Queensland for processing.

The gin is being operated by local company WANT (Western Australian Northern Territory) Cotton, in partnership with global cotton giant Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC).

Barrister, investor and director of WANT Cotton, Allan Myers KC, said the Northern Territory “would now enjoy having the most modern cotton gin in the world”.

“This gin will enable the cotton industry to develop in the northern part of Australia for the benefit of the country, for the Northern Territory, and for the people involved in it,” he said.

“This gin will now produce a natural product that’s in increasing demand around the world … it ticks all the boxes for me.”

The gin has the capacity to produce between 150,000 to 200,000 bales per year.

Planting starts

WANT Cotton director David Connolly said NT growers were making the most of the wet season and had already started planting dryland crops.

He said from small trials back in 2018-19, it was expected up to 15,000 hectares would be planted this season, which is a record for the NT.

“I think what people need to know is that people aren’t tearing down trees to plant this cotton because we’ve already got our farmland,” Mr Connolly said.

“At Tipperary Station for instance, we’ve got oodles of farmland that we use to grow hay on and we’ve converted that land to dryland cotton and the rain that comes out of the sky is the irrigator.”

He said there were opportunities for some irrigated cotton in the future, but the majority would be dryland crops.

The cotton modules currently on site have come from various Top End farms and also the Ord Irrigation Scheme in the Kimberley.

Ginning is expected to start early next year.

The Ord Valley is on track to have its own cotton gin ready by 2025 and there were WA growers on site for Friday’s opening.

Cotton Australia chief executive Adam Kay said cotton was emerging in many parts of the north.

“We’re had innovative growers in the north growing the crop but having to transport it 3,000 kilometres,” he said.

“But now they have processing on their doorstep and I think it really is exciting to see this for the Territory and it’s going to be full steam ahead for Katherine.”