{"id":196308,"date":"2025-10-07T23:34:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T23:34:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/196308\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T23:34:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T23:34:15","slug":"australian-merino-wool-future-positive-after-surging-price-restores-grower-confidence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/196308\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian merino wool future positive after surging price restores grower confidence"},"content":{"rendered":"

After being hit by drought and rising feed and production costs in recent years, some wool growers have been leaving the industry, concerned about their viability.<\/p>\n

For those who stuck it out, like Condobolin grower Gabby Neale, the recent sustained run of rising wool prices amid strong demand has given them a reason for optimism.<\/p>\n

“There’s just so much potential that I think it’s worth sticking around,” Ms Neale said.\"Serioius<\/p>\n

Gabby Neale says the recent Nanjing Wool Market Conference in China was an eyeopener. (Supplied: Nanjing Wool Conference)<\/p>\n

Ms Neale grew up on a wool farm in Condobolin and is now the founder and creative director of Merino clothing label Intact.<\/p>\n

She said she had always seen great potential for wool beyond traditional knitwear and wanted to ensure consumers continued to find benefit in the homegrown fibre.<\/p>\n

“Future success, in any business, comes from innovation through efficiencies and design,” Ms Neale said.<\/p>\n

\"Eight<\/p>\n

Representatives of the Australian wool industry at the AWI Future Wool Industry Leaders tour in China. (Supplied: Kristen Frost)<\/p>\n

Recently arriving back from an Australian Wool Innovation (AWI) Future Wool Industry Leaders tour to China, Ms Neale has renewed optimism for the wool sector.<\/p>\n

She said being able to see firsthand the value overseas customers put on Australia’s wool product was reassuring.<\/p>\n

“The biggest takeaway for me was the level of scale and investment the Chinese have put into the industry and how much value they place on Australian wool,” she said.<\/p>\n

“We all walked away from the trip with the same sentiment that it’s not something that’s going to go away.”<\/p>\n

Longest winning run since 80s<\/p>\n

China is the largest consumer of Australian wool, buying about 85 per cent of production.<\/p>\n

The continued demand for Australian wool at a time when production has been forecast to drop to its lowest level in 100 years has resulted in sustained price increases on the auction floor.<\/p>\n

The Australian wool industry’s Eastern Market Indicator (EMI) has climbed for 11 consecutive weeks, which is the longest run of price rises since 1987.<\/p>\n

Wool industry slump<\/a><\/p>\n

Wool production is forecast to drop to its lowest level in 100 years, but young farmers remain optimistic about the future.<\/p>\n

In the NSW New England region, Walcha growers Hugh and Felicity Nivison achieved the top auction price so far this season \u2014 an outstanding $190 per kilo.<\/p>\n

Mr Nivison said his family’s farm had seen many ups and downs across its 90-year history.<\/p>\n

“I know a lot of people have decided there’s not enough money in merinos and they’re getting out and it’s nice to see a bit of confirmation that maybe staying in them isn’t a bad idea,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Nivison is encouraging more growers to consider staying in the industry, with more diversification.<\/p>\n

“You don’t really want to follow all the lemmings off the cliff,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I think there’s a solid outlook there for the moment and I think if we keep on producing good wool and be efficient at it and be productive, then I think there’s a good reason for staying in them as part of your business.”<\/p>\n

\"Smiling<\/p>\n

Harold Manttan with the Nivison family’s wool clip that has fetched the highest price for the season so far. (Supplied: Harold Manttan)<\/p>\n

‘Swings and roundabouts’ normal in industry<\/p>\n

District wool manager for Elders Dubbo, Lindsay Brown, is another young industry member buoyed by the latest developments.<\/p>\n

“From where it’s been for the last 12 to 24 months, it’s been a real sugar hit for us,” Mr Brown said.<\/p>\n

“For those people who are still in the game, who have stuck around, I think they’ll get rewarded in due course. it just fills you with a bit of confidence with where the market’s at.”\"Smiling<\/p>\n

Lindsay Brown says the wool industry has always seen highs and lows. (Supplied: Kristen Frost)<\/p>\n

He said wool markets had always ebbed and flowed.<\/p>\n

“I guess with anything, it always swings and roundabouts with any commodity in any industry,” Mr Brown said.<\/p>\n

Analyst urges caution as costs remain high<\/p>\n

Amid the optimism, wool analyst Matt Dalgleish warned it was too early to say the sector had turned a corner.<\/p>\n

He said costs remained high and production was continuing to fall significantly.<\/p>\n

“That to me is a signal of industry in distress and contracting rather than a huge growth in demand for wool somehow globally that’s underpinning these stronger prices,” Mr Dalgleish said.<\/p>\n

However, Australian Wool Network’s northern NSW and Queensland regional manager, Harold Manttan, said he was confident the uptick in auction room prices would continue.<\/p>\n

“Listening to the trade, I’d say it’s got some forward motion yet,” he said.<\/p>\n

“In my 40 years in the game, I haven’t seen anything like this really.”<\/p>\n

There has been an expected correction to the market this week, with falls seen in southern wool markets at the time of publication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After being hit by drought and rising feed and production costs in recent years, some wool growers have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":196309,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,123523,123528,99,123526,11054,20638,123524,123527,56199,31221,123525],"class_list":["post-196308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-wool-network","tag-awi-future-wool-industry-leaders-tour-in-china","tag-business","tag-district-wool-manager-for-elders-dubbo","tag-exports","tag-fashion","tag-harold-manttan","tag-lindsay-brown","tag-merino","tag-wool","tag-wool-analyst-matt-dalgleish"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}