NZ wool auction volumes set to climb 83pc next week

Shearing output has tapered off since the end of the main season.

New Zealand wool auction volumes are set to increase 83 per cent next week as farmers who had been holding out for better prices put their bales on the market.

Some 10,000 bales of wool are scheduled to be offered at next week's South Island auction, up from 5469 bales at this week's auction in the North Island yesterday and 6346 bales on offer in the South Island last week, according to AgriHQ.

"This increase is due to farmers who had previously held back, coming forward as a result of recent improvements in local prices," said AgriHQ analyst Emma Dent.

Some 98 per cent of the wool offered at auction was sold yesterday, she said.

The price for clean 35-micron wool, a benchmark for crossbred wool used for carpets and accounting for the majority of New Zealand's production, fetched $5.80 per kilogram at auction yesterday, unchanged from last week but 9 per cent higher than year earlier levels, Dent said.

Meanwhile, lamb wool slipped to 6.65/kg from last week's four-year high of $6.80/kg, and is 32 per cent higher than its auction price this time last year, she said.

Wool is New Zealand's 13th largest commodity export.