Wool Report: A slumped market

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This week The Country's Jamie Mackay is joined by PGG Wrightson's South Island wool procurement manager Rob Cochrane to look at the wool market this month.

The 2019/20 wool season wrapped up yesterday with 17 thousand bales on offer across both islands, and there are a lot of growers still resisting and holding onto wool.

Mid-micron and crossbreed growers may be concerned that they were losing as much as 50 per cent compared to last year, Cochrane said.

Mackay said that from a historical perspective, the wool market had never seen a slump like this.

Cochrane agreed, reflecting back on 1969 when wool prices were around 23 cents per pound.

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It was criminal that prices continued to fall, Mackay said, with Covid-19 was still affecting the market in terms of boarder restrictions, imports, and offshore processing.

Cochrane added perspective by saying the price of wool had gradually been going down over the past few years, and people don't necessarily have the money to buy wool.

Mackay noted that until there were alternate sustainable long-term uses for crossbreed wool, the industry was "buggered".

Cochrane agreed, but stressed that traditional uses of wool, such as carpet and internal furnishings would still help the industry in the long run.