The price of wool is back in the headlines where it has been, intermittently, for the past 50 years. I can remember as a very young journalist covering an Electoral College meeting in the mid-1970s. For the more modern, the Electoral College was elected by farmers to appoint members to the then Meat and Wool Boards.
It’s since been nuked and good riddance. The Wool Board has gone the same way; it wasn’t much use either.
Back in the ’70s the debate was all about the price of wool, and the late Wilson Whineray as then head of the Wool Marketing Corporation was summoned to give answers.
Whineray gave a classic Mark Antony-style speech, saying he could sell all the wool we produced but he needed to give the amount of wool available, the quality and the price, and that meant acquisition in some form or other.
The reaction wouldn’t have been dissimilar to that of a condom vendor on the Vatican steps. It was hysterical.
Federated Farmers back then was neutral, desperately trying to tell both sides of the story. That wasn’t satisfactory to many and the ragingly right-wing Sheep and Cattlemen’s Association was born. It was resourced to a large extent by the carpet companies, which told you a lot, especially about farmer naivety.
The acquisition debate was the most hysterical I’ve ever encountered and facts seemed irrelevant.
We’re back there now with wool in the doldrums. But this time, I believe, it’s the last chance for wool. Farmers are looking at expanding their beef operations and getting self-shedding sheep.
Derek Daniel is the country’s leading ram breeder and a person who is passionate about farming.
To meet the current market he’s selling self-shedding sheep among his other lines and he can’t keep up with demand.
He sells a total of 2600 rams a year and wants wool to produce upwards of $250 a hectare on hill country. That’s ambitious, but he believes it’s achievable.
Wool has two strong supporters in Minister for Rural Communities Mark Patterson and Feds meat and wool chair Toby Williams, who has stopped selling his wool at auction.
“I’m selling privately because the system isn’t working,” Williams told me. “We need to go to a different system. It’s the same people doing the same things. Wools of NZ are on life support in my view. Wool Impact’s problem is too much talk.
“We need to get everyone to work together. We’re losing land to other uses.”
I rate Williams and agree with him. My belief is that Wools of NZ, Wool Impact and the Wool Research Institute are largely a waste of rations.
Patterson agrees with Williams.
“There’s genuine potential but no silver bullet,” he said. “I am confident of a demand upsurge with the environmental advantages wool has.
“There’s some real upsides on the horizon with new uses for the product. We must look at new initiatives.
“I’d also question what farmers are doing to make sure any price increase goes to them. I’m pleased to see Toby Williams is saying we need better pathways to the market. We need to grow demand and make sure the price increase goes to farmers.
“I met with wool industry leaders recently and there’s potential with a different marketing model, similar to what Zespri uses.
“We can’t continue what we’re doing,” he said.
I agree. There are some positives and Bremworth’s commitment to wool carpet is just one example.
My solution, for what it’s worth, is to start with the basics. Develop a strong story for wool, that it is a natural product and biodegradable. That it doesn’t put microplastics in the ocean killing fish. It doesn’t put microplastics into the air causing respiratory issues.
Develop a strong story around those features so that people feel bad about not using wool.
I’d go one step further. If we’re taxing CO2 emissions as we are in the Emissions Trading Scheme, if we’re considering taxing burping and farting ruminants, then surely we can tax synthetic fibres.
Are we saying that food and fibre should pay a climate tax while producing food and biodegradable fibre while giving synthetic fabrics including carpets and clothing a free ride?
Are we also suggesting that it is better to cause billions of dollars of respiratory complaints in humans while killing our fish, plus putting microplastics in the food chain is less important than an environmentally responsible food system?
If people buy electric cars and eat mung beans to save the planet then surely wool must be the fabric of choice.
It just needs to be marketed from a simple story. We don’t need to travel the world attending conferences and meeting people. We need to be developing a simple story right and selling it.
We also need to change our industry model so farmers get the benefits and the Zespri initiative has some appeal.
