Innovative new products using wool and hemp fibre will be developed under a new partnership between NZ Yarn and Hemp NZ.

Surfboards made of wool are the next front in securing wool’s long-term future for New Zealand’s agricultural sector.

Wool technology student Hope Duncan has put together an exhibition on the NZ crossbred industry.

Auckland wool innovator Lanaco say NASA should determine within about six months whether its wool-based filter technology will be used in the Orion spacecraft for upcoming deep-space exploration missions. 

Investment in technology and assurance programmes led to Wools of New Zealand (WNZ) becoming the supplier for a new Marks and Spencer (M&S) clothing range, says Rosstan Mazey, WNZ chief executive.

Merino wool is “very much the talk of the town at the moment,” says PGG Wrightson South Island sales manager Dave Burridge.

With a lot fewer players in the wool industry these days there is a better chance of getting consensus, says NZ Wool Exporters Council president Peter Whiteman.

The Wool Summit had an air of collaboration and an understanding of the need to consolidate the industry, says Wools of New Zealand chairman Mark Shadbolt.

The wool industry has to be restructured; there is no other way, says prominent grower Derrick Millton.

The proof of the pudding will be in the eating following the Wool Summit, says Feds meat and wool industry group chairman Miles Anderson.