Market improves for best types

] with rob Cochrane

] Wool Procurement Manager, ] PGG Wrightson Wool

Wool industry participants and observers were obviously concerned when Cyclone Gabrielle dealt her cruel blow to such a wide area of the North Island, in particular crippling transport networks as well as one of the two main wool scouring facilities in New Zealand.

It is highly likely that every wool exporter has been affected to some degree by this event whether they had scoured wool packed into a container ready for dispatch to ship side, scoured wool sitting at the scour site in high density bales ready to be c containerized, or greasy wool in farm bales awaiting the scouring process.

To further complicate matters the local Napier wool dumping facility (the process where either 2 or 3 greasy farm bales are compressed into the size of one farm bale before being containerized for export) suffered a mechanical breakdown, unrelated to the flooding, likely to halt that facility’s operations until late March.

It was expected that affected exporters would have to replace their losses by competing in the auction room and via country merchants and that growers who had wool for sale may reap the benefits, which unfortunately would not be the case for many growers who had also suffered extreme damage to their properties and infrastructures. With still two wool scours in action the largest capacity remaining was that of the Washdyke location.

A North Island wool auction, scheduled soon after the Cyclone Gabrielle event, was cancelled for obvious reasons, however after wool broker and wool exporter meetings to discuss the way forward were held, auctions recommenced during late February and early March supported fully by the export trade.

Prices for better wool types displaying good base colour (whiteness) improved in both Islands as buyers scurried to replace some of their orders.

Along with good colour wools a number of poorer types also improved in value however because climatic conditions experienced across both North and South Islands for several months had been conducive to producing yellowing, the high volumes of extremely poor fleece wool did not improve in value compared to earlier sales and in many instances eased considerably. Poor colour and mixed length oddments also struggled to gain reasonable bids.

Lamb’s wool, often a feature of February and March auctions, had not escaped the climate with South Island wools in particular producing high colour test results, unheard of during my time in the industry. Many lines of Lamb’s wool showed discolouration in the tips of their staples due to wet weather before weaning, as well as yellowing of fibres in general caused by long periods of high humidity.

A negative feature of many lines of Lamb’s wool offered during the February/March period was an obvious lack of care with in-shed preparation leaving discoloured seconds (bellies and pieces) amongst good colour body wool resulting in many lines being discounted whilst well-prepared lines gained positive momentum.

As eluded, poor colour wools have been “the norm” this calendar year to date, mostly through no fault of the grower but rather due to climatic conditions, however with crossbred and many mid-micron wool prices remaining generally very low, a large percentage of growers have preferred to reduce in-shed preparation to save costs.

Whilst cost saving sentiment can easily be understood in such a market, continuing to discount shed preparation standards will, in my view, continue to discount the entire wool clip from its previously highly regarded status amongst all wool processors across the globe. That’s my view.

] with Ali Spencer