Farmers aim to sell direct

By PHILIPPA STEVENSON

Those farming New Zealand's dominant sheep breed, the Romney, are being invited to sell their clip directly to overseas carpet manufacturers.

A six-month-old grower organisation, Romney New Zealand, yesterday unveiled plans for producers of the strong or coarse wool to form a grower cooperative for the purpose of closing the gaps between the farm gates and the market.

The idea mirrors the successful Merino New Zealand model for apparel wool and the recommendations in the McKinsey wool industry rescue plan released two weeks ago.

Romney New Zealand's founders say their plan has been in the pipeline for 18 months and they have been waiting for the release of the McKinsey study as they have not wanted to pre-empt industry consultation.

Wairarapa sheep farmer and former All Black Sir Brian Lochore chairs the new group and has committed his wool clip to it for the next three years.

In Canterbury yesterday, he launched the group's push to sign up at least another 1000 Romney farmers, together with those who farm other strong wool breeds such as Perendale, Drysdale and Coopworth.

"I am willing to take on a very big challenge because I believe Romney New Zealand represents an outstanding opportunity to return some common sense to a struggling industry that is far too important to be left with a hand-to-mouth existence," Sir Brian said.

Romney New Zealand, whose foundations have been laid by the Romney Breeders' Association, needed 10 per cent of the wool clip or up to about 1500 farmers to become a commercially viable business, said David Giddings, a Fairlie sheep farmer who was part of a three-person team which researched the overseas market opportunities for strong wools.

The international carpet market, particularly at the high-priced end, was thriving and growers needed to cut out the middle men to gain from it, Mr Giddings said. Romney New Zealand had a management contract with wool scourer and exporter Wool Services International to collect, scour and export the wool.

The cooperative intends raising a 2 per cent per kilo levy on shareholding growers to fund promotion, which will most likely be done by Wool's of New Zealand.

It would also like to retain 10 per cent per kilo of the first six months of farmers' wool sales to provide it with working capital.

There are an estimated 8000 growers nationwide producing about 80,000 tonnes of quality coarse wool. At the other end of the scale, Merino growers produce about 8000 tonnes.

Sir Brian said an average grower's initial investment in the cooperative would be around $2000.

Romney New Zealand will spread the word about its plans at meetings across the country starting in Canterbury on July 18.

It is planning to issue a prospectus in late August or early September.