Growers back wool merger
Woolgrowers have almost unanimously voted in favour of the proposed merger of Wools of NZ (WNZ) and Primary Wool Co-operative- owned CP Wool (CPW).
That’s the message from Howie Gardner, the incoming chairman of CP Wool, the new name for Elders Primary Wool which kicked in this week.
“You could almost say wool is engineering its own demise by the very poor preparation by many of our wool growers,” Gardner told Rural News. “We cannot get that message out there quickly enough nor give it enough emphasis.”
The need for preparation and attention to contamination has firmly been rammed home since Elders – now Carrfields – took over the Christchurch spinning company New Zealand Yarns last December.
“Thistle head is an absolute disaster in the manufacturing process,” says the third generation South Otago sheep farmer.
“There are opportunities in the wool industry but the messages have not been clear enough from the market about the value of well-prepared, contamination-free wool. There needs to be minimal vegetable matter particularly thistle heads.”
Because the messages have not been there, people have assumed their standard was ok.
“But that has probably engineered our downfall in many respects,” says Gardner. “If people in the manufacturing process are not getting the product they want, the easiest path is to go elsewhere.
“The standards have always been there, but we are now not delivering what the manufacturers need for the efficient operation of their plants.
“When you look at what wool is returning currently -- and CP Wool is serious about growing not only our business but the level of returns to the New Zealand wool grower -- people have to play their part, it’s as simple as that.
“If they are not producing the product the manufacturers want, the manufacturers will vote with their feet; they have done, they are doing and will do. So we have to lift our game.”
Growers are limited in what they can do in pasture.
“You can manage it to a certain extent, but we are dealing with live animals, patches of scrub, thistles. The preparation has to either take place pre-shearing or in the woolshed. It has to be of a very high standard.
“The problem has been – and I can’t reinforce it strongly enough – those market signals haven’t been there -- people have assumed it is ok to have vegetable matter in the wool, but it’s not ok.
“It is a hard message to get out, but the quality and preparation of NZ wool needs to go up.”
Wool traceability not an issue
A lesson learnt quickly in the US was they didn’t care about traceability in wool, says Gardner.
“They care about it in food but they don’t care about wool. We care about fraudulent activity and substitution of product but the consumers doesn’t care much. That is the experience we have had in the US and Australia, he told Rural News.
“People say they do but they actually don’t. It is one of those oddball things about consumer behaviour. I think it is largely a marketing tool.
“We would love to be able to apply some disciplines to the worldwide industry. We have used isotype testing in the past to establish origin of product and there are new developments in that space that is ongoing.
“But as far as the consumer is concerned, our experience is they don’t care.”
