The farmers' wool levy which was tossed out in a growers' referendum almost five years ago will be on the agenda again this year as New Zealand is urged to show more united support for international moves to save the industry.
Prompts came as global Campaign for Wool executive director and International Wool Textile Organisation president Peter Ackroyd and British Wool Marketing Board CEO Ian Hartley spoke to industry representatives and other interested parties in Napier on Tuesday.
Later, Wool Levy Review Committee chairman Derek Daniell said from his Wairarapa farm a recommendation supporting reintroduction of the levy.
The review was set up two years ago by Beef + Lamb NZ (which had been Meat + Wool NZ until the restructuring after the "no" vote in 2009) and will go before the organisation's annual conference in March.
If the recommendation is adopted, a new referendum will be planned, with farmers considering funding such things as research and development, skills and education, and market development, possibly including the Campaign for Wool, a pet project of Prince Charles, its founding patron.
There's been a significant Hawke's Bay influence on the committee, with Flemington farmer and Primary Wool Co-Operative director Hamish De Lautour and Waipukurau wool buyer Philippa Wright.
Not at Tuesday's meeting - having just returned from a holiday in which the presence of New Zealand woolwear was unmistakable on the ski slopes of Canada - Mr Daniell said the logic of the recommendation will be revealed during the next few weeks as part of the papers leading up to the conference.
"We are hoping to get a levy funded $3-4 million to get a few things done to the industry," he said.
"There will be certain things that slip through the net if not."
Dwindling funds from the former levy are still being used, but Mr Daniell said: "The other wool-producing countries are saying 'Come on you guys, let's get us all working together'."
"If we abandon this, the whole industry could sink without trace."
He warned that re-gathering of the levy would not necessarily make the industry leap forward.
Under the Commodity Levies Act, a referendum must be held every five years, and in 2009 farmers were asked to approve a reducing levy, which would have seen it set at 3c/kg in 2012.
Instead farmers opposed the levy, directing cutting about $6.4 million from the Meat + Wool NZ income, and indirectly cutting $5 million.
At the time, chairman and Central Hawke's Bay farmer Mike Petersen said the vote had sent a clear message that growers were dissatisfied with investments "and we need to do better."
Messrs Ackroyd and Hartley both expressed confidence in the future of wool in its challenges against synthetic fibres, mainly petroleum-based, and projections that even doubling the 2 per cent share of the fibre market in the US would have the industry struggling to meet demand.
They implored a targeting of the high-end fashion and interiors markets - answering concerns about unsustainable returns for NZ growers - and the continued telling of the wool story and its natural features appeal to the customer.
"In my country," said Mr Ackroyd, who comes from the fifth generation of a Yorkshire farming family, "Eighty per cent of the clothing products end up in landfills, but only the wool will be biodegradable."
Mr Hartley said input from the future King enabled wool promotion to take part in some unlikely venues and markets.
"The story of wool is amazing," Mr Hartley said.
Messrs Ackroyd and Hartley were in Wellington yesterday meeting government and ministry leaders, including Minister of Primary Industries Nathan Guy, before heading to Christchurch for a meeting with South Island industry representatives today.