Cargill to expand crush capacity to meet demand for Australian canola and cottonseed oil

The sites in question are its Newcastle, Narrabri and Footscray processing plants.

The revamping project includes an upgrade and restart of Cargill’s Narrabri plant which has been modified into a dedicated cottonseed dehulling plant. The hulls from Narrabri will cater to domestic feedstock markets and cottonseed meats will be transported to Newcastle where it will be further processed into oil and meal.

The plant in Newcastle, New South Wales, is also being upgraded to enable the crush of cotton seed, along with existing processing capacity of canola. This will significantly increase the plant’s total crush capacity. Other facility upgrades will include improvements in oilseed processing equipment to serve the increased throughput and the cottonseed meal product, higher transport efficiencies and improving farmer delivery experience.

Additionally, the company’s Footscray plant will also see an increase in canola crush capacity with upgrades to the processing equipment and some modifications to drive logistical efficiencies and better, more efficient customer experience.

Feed, food and fuel demand 

Australian canola is in high demand globally for its use across food products, biodiesel and in feed. The major export destinations for canola oil are China, Vietnam, and New Zealand.

“This investment in increasing our crush capacity will help Cargill better serve the growing demand for canola and cottonseed products from customers both in Australia and across Asia. It will also connect Australian farmers to international markets, creating more demand for locally grown canola.” said Zsolt Kocza, MD of Cargill’s agriculture supply chain in Australia and South and Southeast Asia (SSEA).

With this investment, Cargill said it also expects to be able to supply new domestic customers with cotton seed hulls and oil.