Saibosi partners with Wools of New Zealand to showcase farm-to-floor wool rugs in China
Chinese textile company Saibosi has partnered with Wools of New Zealand to put the 'farm to floor' story of New Zealand wool rugs on screen for its customers.
Lighter fleece weights due to a big North Island move to meat production from sheep is an influence on wool supply, says Malcolm Ching, Purelana manager, Wool Services International.
Wool supply is dropping from sheep numbers but it is nothing people haven’t anticipated, he says. NZ’s sheep numbers have gone from 30.3m sheep to 29.8m, which Ching says it is not hugely impacting overall supply.
“The bigger impact is lighter fleece weights due to the composite effect, where instead of an animal producing 4.5kg in a 12 month period it is producing 4kg,” he told Rural News.
“This is mainly coming out of the North Island due to the big move to meat production from sheep.
“They have gone for more lambs and there has been a lot of crossing with Finns and Texels which are meat derivative, high progeny based sires. But the wool produced is a spongier fine more mixed length and doesn’t quite grow as long as the traditional NZ breeds such as the Romneys and Perrendales.
“We have had only a slight drop in stock numbers but we have had a wool weight drop as well. But in our current market we still have a bit of a drift off in wool demand as well.”
A brilliant result and great news for growers and regional economies. That's how horticulture sector leaders are describing the news that sector exports for the year ended June 30 will reach $8.4 billion - an increase of 19% on last year and is forecast to hit close to $10 billion in 2029.
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We're working through it, and we'll get to it.
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