ROB COCHRANE
With weather events wreaking havoc across many parts of New Zealand during the past several weeks, wool quality could well suffer into the latter part of 2022, however currently there are some extremely well grown wool types being received into broker wool stores around the South Island.
On the coarse wool front, several exceptionally good lines of pre-lamb fleece have been noted by brokers and exporters, with obvious premium prices being paid either through the auction system or via forward contracts agreed earlier.
Now that the fine wool season is well underway throughout Marlborough, Canterbury and Otago, many lines of fleece sampled thus far have also proved extremely attractive for style, staple length and tensile strength and, with significant percentages of those types already forward contracted, all parties should be pleased with the quality of their deliveries.
The wool auction arena has recently witnessed lesser than anticipated bale volumes coming forward in both the North and South Islands. The most recent Napier auction at time of writing (25th August), saw approximately 6700 bales (1300 fewer than originally scheduled) of predominantly new season’s second shear offered to the export trade, with around 18% failing to reach grower reserve prices despite a slightly softer NZD versus its US counterpart, although the Kiwi had appreciated slightly against both the Euro and GBP, since the previous auction one week earlier.
Although the market in Napier could be quoted as “in buyers’ favour”, most interest for second-shear types was targeted towards the better style wools of good washing colour and low vegetable matter contamination.
Due to limited availability of poorer colour fleece types, given the time of year, the market for these improved by a few cents in the Napier auction room as a handful of exporters filled orders.
As earlier eluded, a feature of auction catalogues in the South Island throughout August were some magnificently grown full length coarse wool fleece lines, which commanded keen interest from exporters, with several well-known farm brands, mostly representing the Otago region, achieving healthy premiums (between 75 and 90 cents clean in some instances) above others of similar length but with higher y minus z colour readings.
During the past few weeks and despite snow and heavy rain causing issues for growers and transport operators in many high-country areas, Merino wool types have begun to flow into wool stores in Canterbury and Otago. The first significant quantities of Merino and finer Halfbred types, were offered in the Christchurch auction of 18th August, greeted by exporters with sizeable order books to fill.
Prices achieved for the fine Merino types were quoted post-sale as “extreme” in many cases and above those ruling in Australian broker catalogues the same week.
Finer Halfbred types also sold well in Christchurch, although in comparison appeared cheaper than those quoted by Australian brokers the same week. At time of writing, South Island broker catalogues were being collated for the September 1st auction when larger bale numbers of similar types would be on offer and expectation was considerably optimistic.
But back to the recent serious weather event and thinking about the probable many tonnes of synthetic flooring which will end up in landfill, and from a selfish wool perspective, wouldn’t it be great to have insurers of recently flood damaged properties specify woolen floor coverings, manufactured at the very least in New Zealand or Australia, as healthy and sustainable replacements?
That’s my view.
