Murray Horn is a man on a mission and the hope will be that it’s not an impossible one.

The National Health Board chairman was tapped by Agriculture Minister David Carter to act as a wool industry convenor, announced this week.

Dr Horn’s role of the next few weeks is to speak with up to 40 wool industry representatives in an attempt to find some common ground on which a brand new industry body could be based.

With the ink barely dry on Agriculture Minister David Carter’s wool taskforce report, a convenor has been appointed to focus on one of its fundamental recommendations.

Mr Carter has announced the appointment of former Treasury secretary Murray Horn to lead the work toward forming a single body for the New Zealand wool industry.

Dr Horn is the chairman of the National Health Board and is on the board of Telecom. He has held senior executive roles with ANZ and was chief executive of the bank’s New Zealand operations.

Agriculture Minister David Carter plans to sweep existing wool industry organisations in favour of a new single body.

This clean slate approach was suggested the Mr Carter’s wool taskforce in a report released yesterday afternoon.

Following the release of the report, 35 wool sector leaders gathered at Premier House in Wellington with Mr Carter and agreed to adopt the eight recommendations of the report – Restoring Profitability to the Strong Wool Sector.

A wool industry good organisation has slammed a government body’s refusal to fund research, condemning it to stagnate.

Wool Research Organisation of New Zealand (WRONZ) chairman David Douglas said the Foundation for Research Science and Technology’s (FRST) decision to reject a request to help fund a wool consortium was a “significant blow.”

An eight-member taskforce has been created by Agriculture Minister David Carter in an attempt to provide direction to a rudderless wool industry.

Mr Carter recently gathered wool industry representatives following the failed attempt by Meat & Wool New Zealand to maintain farmer support in the wool levy it collected.

Mr Carter said those gathered at the meeting agreed that united action was necessary to lift the state of the ailing industry.

The wool industry is being described as “in crisis” as overseas buyers fail to collect their contracted consignments from wharves and default on paying.

A sudden trend among Indian and Chinese buyers in particular is causing New Zealand wool producers to stare down the barrel of losses in the tens of millions of dollars.

Some overseas buyers are attempting to strong-arm New Zealand producers to renegotiate contract prices in the light of a much weaker New Zealand dollar.