Marketers fight to save wool

While Australians and Kiwis can trade sheep jokes any day of the week there are two sheep statistics that are no laughing matter either side of the Tasman. Since reaching a peak of 186 million in the 1960s, Australian sheep numbers have declined to 86m this year, a similar proportion to NZ's drop from 70m to 38.5m during the same period. M&WNZ forecasts a further 12.4% drop to 34.15m in the 2009 season. The future is uncertain, but there are many bright prospects for wool in fashion and design. NZ has a turf war between the Wool Exporters Council and M&WNZ over the use of the marketing dollar writes Rural News. However, Australian Wool Innovation (AWI) has made great strides over the past year, committing to a $A120m spend over three years on getting Merino recognised in the global marketplace as a premium luxury fibre. The organisation "“ funded by 35,000 woolgrowers who produce 80% of the world's apparel wool "“ has a programme of rolling out Merino brands to work alongside the Woolmark. And the grower members were fairly satisfied with the marketing progress to date when they met the AWI met in Perth recently. AWI has been proactive in becoming involved in partnerships with designers and retail store chains. However, the reason for the ditching of four of the five board members who stood for re-election and the appointment of a new chairman lay in the long-standing debate over mulesing, where the skin and wool around the breach of Merino lambs is removed to prevent flystrike.The new board is far more grower-representative and is going all out to research alternatives. "˜I have seen much misinformation since the election of the new board and felt it was important to set the record straight,' new chairman Wal Merriman said. "˜Everyone on the new board wants to see an end to mulesing as soon as possible but it can only be achieved when viable alternatives are in place.'