New industry body aims to unite and rebuild strong wool industry
A new levying body, currently with the working title of NZWool, has been proposed to secure the future of New Zealand's strong wool sector.
A major conference on wool, held in Nanjing last week, was attended by Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson and Wool Impact chief executive Andy Caughey. Both men spoke at the conference, promoting NZ strong wool.
China is New Zealand’s largest wool market: in the year ending June 30 2025, NZ exported $446 million worth of wool, with $176 million going to China.
Speaking to Rural News from Shanghai, Caughey pointed out that the conference is held once per year and is considered an important venue for New Zealand’s wool market because China purchases approximately 35% of New Zealand’s wool.
Caughey said there had been a lot of research around the growing awareness of health and wellbeing among Chinese consumers in terms of both the home and offices.
“In China, you’ve got real value placed on their children and the home environment – they don’t have big homes like us – and so everything they put in the home is carefully chosen because they don’t have a lot of space and what we’re promoting is bringing natural fibres into that living space,” he said.
“We look at the Chinese market… and what’s happening is that with their growing affluence within their society, they are increasingly churning through a lot of products domestically at home, so people are trading up.”
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Patterson said New Zealand has a great story around the innovation, sustainability, integrity and quality of our premium strong wool.
“This means we’re well placed to meet consumer demand in China for premium wool products.
“This opportunity brings together industry representatives, wool growers and processors, and trade experts to foster cooperation and promote and build on the commitment of the coalition Government to ensure the future success of New Zealand’s wool.”
China could also buffer some effects on tariffs imposed by the Trump Administration.
Caughey said that as tariffs from the US come into effect what may be lost in some export markets, will result in an increase in other markets like China.
He said New Zealand’s strong wool sector needed to shift away from trading as a commodity and instead trade based on relationships and what makes the product special.
“It’s the crux of what we’re trying to do to get a better price, a better return for growers.
“We’ve got 100,000 tonnes of wool and 85,000 tonnes – so 85% of that – is exported overseas and we’ve just sold it through the auction and it just disappears… growers don’t know what products, what company or even which country their wool goes to and so how can we command a better price if we don’t know what the product’s being used for?”
He said that this shift meant working towards segmenting that 100,000 tonnes into different wool types and then overlaying that segmentation with accreditation programmes like the New Zealand Farm Assured Programme (NZFAP) and then getting into the details of growers and grower groups.
“So, offering something special that differentiates the wool over and above a commodity market.
“Instead of pushing our product in the market, what we’re looking at doing is connecting with brands and building programmes around the manufacturing brands who are seeking products and giving them access to tailor-made recipes of fibre,” he added.
According to Caughey, New Zealand wool makes up a quarter of the wool traded around the world, but New Zealand makes up approximately two thirds of the premium wool traded.
“We’re trying to sell the best of the best and when you’re selling the best of the best, you need to take a different approach and be working closely, intimately, with brands in New Zealand and overseas to make them realise ‘You’ve got access to something that not everyone gets’ but at the moment, we’re just putting it out there.”
Globally, the future for wool looks bright, said Caughey.
“The world is becoming increasingly aware of the issues around microplastics on human health and on the environment… So, I think we’re getting a change in culture and mindset and buying quality products that last longer.
“I believe there will be a change in attitudes in the way we think and purchase and consume products.
“There’s a lot of things that will support wool in its positioning as a better fibre for the environment than synthetics but we’re less than 1% of the global fibre, so we’ve got to shout loud and… if you’re only 1% of the global fibre market, you’re not a commodity, you’re a specialist niche fibre and so you should be treating it quite differently.”
