\u201cThe unsung heroes of the day were good colour oddments that well exceeded all expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n
PGG Wrightson\u2019s general manager of wool Rachel Shearer said shearing costs were being covered for the vast majority of farmers at such prices, and in many instances the wool cheque was putting them ahead.<\/p>\n
\u201cPrices haven\u2019t been at this rate since around 2011,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo it\u2019s great to see, once again, wool is adding to the bottom line of hardworking New Zealand sheep farmers.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said such strong results were helping to rebuild confidence in the sector, although she noted it came off a low base and the industry had a long way to go.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe tide definitely does seem to be turning, and the really positive thing that we\u2019re taking out of that is that the market is holding at these sustainable levels.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shearer said this was being driven by several factors, including the rising cost of petrochemical-derived synthetics because of the oil crisis stemming from the conflict in Iran.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe world, ironically, is cottoning on to the wonderful properties of wool and the fibre that it is.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut on the other hand, it\u2019s not just New Zealand but Australia and other key wool markets \u2013 everyone\u2019s at the lowest sheep wool-producing volumes that we\u2019ve had since well before the First World War.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo globally there is a supply shortage and coinciding with that is an increase in demand from discerning consumers who are wanting to move back towards a more natural fibre.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adding to this was increased \u201cvolatility\u201d for the price of nylon and polypropylene pellets and synthetics, which were \u201cno longer the cheap and reliable option\u201d.<\/p>\n
PGG Wrightson South Island wool auctioneer Dave Burridge and its general manager of wool, Rachel Shearer. Photo \/ RNZ, Monique Steele<\/p>\n
Shearer said the Iran conflict had led to increased fuel and freight costs, but wool was still moving freely, mainly to manufacturers in China. <\/p>\n
It was also not an \u201covernight turnaround\u201d to transition from nylon and synthetics back into wool.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere it could impact, the longer the conflict goes on, is around the availability of shipping containers and where they … end up in the shipping channels around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coupled with strong sheepmeat prices, she said the future seemed positive for wool producers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s making sheep farming a viable option again and hoping to stem that tide of land-use change and people moving away from sheep, because sheep are a really important part of New Zealand\u2019s agriculture.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo with meat prices and wool prices where they are, we\u2019re hoping that that\u2019s a stable base for New Zealand sheep farmers to build upon.\u201d<\/p>\n
– RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe unsung heroes of the day were good colour oddments that well exceeded all expectations.\u201d PGG Wrightson\u2019s general…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":459050,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[16286,95,806,138,2950,4190,25689,2959,3594,111,139,69,12937,25690,1515,12970],"class_list":["post-459049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-15year","tag-and","tag-as","tag-business","tag-confidence","tag-demand","tag-gianina","tag-high","tag-hit","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-prices","tag-schwanecke","tag-surge","tag-wool"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}