Can collective spirit pull wool over industrys eyes

I admit to being sceptical about the latest efforts to find a way to dig wool prices from the trough they have fallen into over the past 40 years.After being studied by committees, consultants, a network and a task force, the NZ industry is still floundering. Now, the problem is to be put into the hands of one person, a sort of "wool czar". He has my deepest sympathies. The appointment, yet to be made, follows the release of a report by a task force set up by Agriculture Minister David Carter reports The Dom Post. It concluded that the industry's large number of interest groups did not share a "co-ordinated, overarching vision or strategy" and recommended establishing a marketing group that could leverage government funds for "partnerships in market-led wool research and innovation projects". Behind the scenes, lobbyists campaign to undermine their opposition. At the same time, no legal stone is being left unturned as a claim for a share of millions of farmers' reserves is trundling its slow and expensive way through the courts. And while all this is boiling away in New Zealand, the same back-biting battles are being fought between wool and synthetic carpet interests in overseas markets. The exporters, through their National Council of Wool Interests, have launched a marketing initiative of their own, too. They have invited 11 of what they claim are the world's most influential architects to a seminar in Christchurch next month to respark their interest in using wool for interior carpets and textiles. What the industry is hoping to achieve is the "angus effect". All New Zealand primary industries are agog at the runaway success of angus beef. Minced beef from the angus breed of cattle is literally selling like hot cakes at McDonald's stores around the world. If the wool industry can pull off an angus-like deal of its own, then maybe the backbiting and squabbling can be put aside to concentrate on a greater good.