King of Merino wins trophy with world's most expensive fibre

By PHILIPPA STEVENSON

Donald Mount Cook Burnett has done in wool growing what Team New Zealand hopes to do in America's Cup yachting - blitzed the opposition and won a trophy courtesy of the Italians.

The 84-year-old farmer, branded with the name of his family's South Island high-country station at birth, was yesterday honoured with the inaugural Loro Piana World Challenge Trophy for producing the finest bale of Merino wool ever sold on the world market.

The achievement is doubly remarkable because Mr Burnett's single 100kg bale was up against the five million bales from the world's major Merino farming nation, Australia.

Italian mill owner Pier Luigi Loro Piana, supplier of exclusive fabrics to top designers including Armani, Versace and Prada, paid $120,000 for the wool, which had a diameter of only 13.1 microns (a micron is one-millionth of a metre).

Then he came up with the idea of the fine-fibre contest.

Mr Burnett, who farms 2100 Merino on 12,140ha next to Mt Cook National Park, produced record New Zealand bales in 1997 and 1998 before becoming the world leader last year with fibre 0.2 microns finer than Australia's best.

Dr Loro Piana bought all three record Mt Cook bales.

"This is for us so good, so exceptional, we decided to set up the Loro Piana world cup," he said.

The record-breaking bale was the most expensive fibre in the world and would be processed into 50 three-metre lengths, eventually to be sold for men's suits fetching around $20,000 each.

Dressed in his own Mt Cook Station fine-wool suit to receive the trophy, Mr Burnett, the elder statesman of the New Zealand Merino industry, said: "This is the most beautiful day of my life."

The bale came from around 153 hoggets "and you're not joking to suggest I know them all by name," he said.

Dr Loro Piana aims to bring the unmatched characteristics of natural fibres to the attention of top-paying consumers worldwide. He hopes the new trophy will encourage growers, whose finest fibre only a few years ago was a much thicker 17 microns.

Marketing body Merino New Zealand introduced the Loro Piana company to local growers and last year it signed direct supply contracts for around $5 million of their wool. About a quarter of the company's annual five million metres of fabric uses New Zealand fibre.

The company has established the exclusive Loro Piana Zelander fabric, being used in the New Zealand Olympic team's dress uniform, and it has also supplied the New Zealand Equestrian team and, ironically, Team New Zealand, with fabric.

Dr Loro Piana, an ardent supporter of customer and fellow Italian company Prada in its yachting battle, predicts a big trend in casual wear from natural fibres.

The chief executive of Merino NZ, John Brackenridge, said the effect Dr Loro Piana had had on the profile of the local product since he was introduced to it three years ago could not be underestimated.

"He is one of the most respected men in the industry and when he makes a move, others follow."

The moves have already extended to the boat-building industry. After earlier visits here, Dr Loro Piana had a racing yacht built by Cookson boat builders, the makers of Team New Zealand's America's Cup yachts.