Gattung outlines promotion of wool

Theresa Gattung cringes when she sees farmers wearing clothes made of synthetic fibre. Often the clothing has been given away in promotions by rural servicing companies, but the chairwoman of Wool Partners International (WPI) wonders why it was not made of wool. Recently, she met a group of Te Kuiti farmers who refused to accept synthetic promotional clothing, a move Ms Gattung fully supported, but said it was symptomatic of the state the crossbred wool industry was in reports The ODT.Understandably, given low prices, many growers no longer had pride or passion in growing wool and she saw the stand by the King Country farmers as one small step to reverse crossbred wool's seemingly unstoppable slide to oblivion. Many more small steps were needed and Ms Gattung said she was pleased with the contribution made by WPI. Wool had been recognised by United States building standards as a green product, while manufacturers had responded favourably to working with growers and WPI's marketing plan, even though the economic climate precluded them from paying premiums. WPI had signed supply contracts with two US carpet manufacturing and retailing companies, but since then two other companies had approached it about supply agreements, she said. But all this was in the future and Ms Gattung said she acknowledged farmers would judge success on the price they received. She believed repositioning the fibre and selling it on its merits as sustainable and natural was the correct path to follow. However, the status quo had failed the industry and a generation had grown up not aware of wool's value because there had been little marketing, a lack of demand and fragmented supply. "Wool's time has come, but we are not going to fix it between breakfast and tea time."