The development of a Kimberley cotton industry is moving closer to reality with funds to flow to enable the purchase a multi-user, high-tech processing facility, known as a cotton gin.
The McGowan Government has welcomed the Kimberley Cotton Company's (KCC) shareholder capital raising and the execution of a $32 million loan from the Commonwealth Government's Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility to purchase the cotton gin.
The milestone is key to the development of a sustainable cotton industry in the north, providing the catalyst and certainty for industry to scale up production.
The McGowan Government has worked closely with local growers and the KCC over the past five years to back in this development, providing land and funding support.
A lease for a 79.4 hectare site at Mulligans Lagoon Road was signed by the KCC and the State Government earlier this year.
The McGowan Government has invested over $4 million to upgrade the electricity supply, provide infrastructure and facilitate early design work and approvals for the gin development.
The gin will be serviced by a 100 per cent renewable, reliable, efficient power supply using low emission hydroelectricity from the nearby Argyle Dam.
Negotiations continue between the State Government and Kimberley Agricultural Investment for a development lease at Knox Plain to expand cotton production and build scale and profitability.
A study has shown a new cotton gin could create more than 1,000 direct and in-direct local jobs in its first 10 years.
As stated by Agriculture and Food Minister Alannah MacTiernan:
"This important announcement gives investors the confidence to move ahead with building a strong and profitable cotton industry, backed by the certainty of a locally based high-tech, multi-user processing facility.
"Our Government is working closely with investors and industry to support this visionary and ambitious project.
"I look forward to the arrival of the cotton gin in the Kimberley and the generation of economic growth and jobs in the north."
