The wool season finished with the final auction sale yesterday, and has concluded a year of spectacular price rises most in the industry thought were gone forever.
This situation has been brought about by a shortage of supply of wool worldwide, and the first time demand has been outstripped for 20 years.
New markets for wool in the vehicle upholstery and insulation areas, driven by customers that are more environmentally conscious of their product choice, have helped drive this demand.
NZ wool, which is viewed as less contaminated with foreign materials and of better quality than other competing countries, has given our farmers product the edge.
A summary in the micron classes has seen Mid micron wools lift from 690c at the start of the season and finish at 1017c/kg clean. A yearly av price of 805c which is 143c above last year. With Merino NZ taking over marketing this style of wool, quality contracts for specfic uses could see these price gains maintained or grown in the future.
But the most significant price rises were seen in the crossbred wools where these products finished 291-319c/clean average ahead of last year. For a farm running 3000 ewes plus replacements this rise could have meant $40,000 plus more dollars in the pocket than last year, and most appreciated after years of poor prices that often resulted in wool being seen as a cost not an income earner. The lambs wool rise was less, but still over $2.20 clean average for the year.
Growers will be hoping the brand initiatives that some companies are promoting will see these prices rises maintained and Just Shorn promoters disclosed a $1.50/kg premium ahead of auction for contracted wools. And the announcement that the group that failed to form a wool cooperative is the form a company similar to the MerinoNZ model, that focus on marketing with the Wools of NZ brand is another positive sign for the future of this product. A small downside has been seen in the lack of shearers to harvest the crop as the GenY young find this hard labour unattractive.
Wool indicator prices
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1 Comments
All good and nice to see.
Although your last sentence is plainly wrong sorry. There are plenty of shearers around - find me one in NZ that has worked to capacity this year. From july 1 the rate in auz goes to $2.61 why would you shear in NZ. Farmers have also gotten very slack at things like getting sheep in on sundays for shearing monday as they get older and more workers rather than owners. There is no shearer shortage in NZ just a lack of contiuity of work which makes people exit the industry and head to auzzie for longer periods of the year.
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