Panda Biotech delays opening of hemp gin again

Aug 18, 2023

The Panda Biotech hemp processing plant will not open this fall as previously announced.

The change confirmed Wednesday by the company's president is the latest of several delays since Panda first announced plans to come to Wichita Falls in September 2020.

The most recent target date was October, but company president Dixie Carter said Wednesday that won't happen.

She listed several reasons for the delay.

"You know, the market is really crazy, so we’ve been keeping everything as close on target as possible. We’re still dealing with some supply chain issues, obviously, like everybody," she said.

Carter now predicts the plant will open in first quarter of 2023.

"Somewhere in there, she said.

She said upcoming holidays are a factor.

"We just decided with Christmas — and you’ve got Thanksgiving — so you’ve got three weeks of a lot of holiday stuff. The companies we’re working with shut down, so we’re thinking it's going to be more of first quarter now," she said.

"There's a couple of containers that need to be there for the whole thing to work that still need to come over the water. We’re trying to get some steel. You know how that goes," Carter said.

More:Panda Biotech gets funding for hemp plant

She said the company wants an extension on an incentive agreement with the city.

"I think we’re going to get an extension on — honestly I’m not involved with it — but I think it's a 30-day extension on some pre-incentive money that was paid," she said.

She's talking about an extension on a $2.8 million incentive package the city's 4A Sales Tax Corporation was scheduled to consider Thursday.

Representatives of the Wichita Falls Chamber of Commerce said Panda is up to date on its repayment of the incentive to the tune of $50,000 a month, and the deal should be extended. The deal calls for Panda to employ at least 50 workers within five years.

At the time Panda Biotech first pitched an incentive request to the city, the company predicted the gin, touted as the largest of its kind in the U.S., would be in operation in early 2021.

David Leezer of the Wichita Falls Chamber of Commerce said in January 2021 that because of financing issues the operational date would probably be late 2021 or early 2022.

Carter said in February 2022 the plant would probably open in October, but now has pushed the date further forward.

Despite the delays, the project is moving "very, very well," she said.

"We’re still — thank goodness, knock on wood — doing fantastic," Carter said. "I think we're about to announce another cool partnership."

Panda Biotech bought the building at 8400 Central Freeway from a group of local investors in July 2021.

More:What new Panda Biotech hemp processing facility will actually do

The project was financed partly through the sale of up to $85 million in bonds issued by the Mission, Texas, Economic Development Corporation.

The building was originally constructed as a General Motors spark plug plant and then became Delphi Automotive.

With the help of a $2 million incentive package from the city, AmFuel opened a manufacturing facility in the vacant building but declared bankruptcy and closed it in 2017 after just two years in operation.

When operational, the plant will convert hemp stalk into materials that could be used in a variety of applications.

Carter said the gin would initially work with straw already on the ground that would come from South Texas, Colorado and Oklahoma.

"One day I’d love to have it all be local all around the Wichita Falls area, but we’re probably two or three years away from that," Carter said.

Hemp production in Texas faces challenges, according to the Texas A&M Agrilife Extension Service, which notes the crop performs better in northern climates.