Agriculture Minister David Carter hailed a "significant" event as he launched a single wool industry "voice."The new body, known as the Wool Group, is seen by Mr Carter as a necessary first step to the sector's farmers eventually re-vi
Agriculture Minister David Carter hailed a "significant" event as he launched a single wool industry "voice."
The new body, known as the Wool Group, is seen by Mr Carter as a necessary first step to the sector's farmers eventually re-visiting their decision last year to axe levies collected for research and promotion.
Former Treasury secretary and head of ANZ Banking Group's New Zealand arm, Murray Horn said government agencies would now engage with the body as a collective voice for the sector to find ways to improve profitability for strong wools, he said.
When farmers axed industry levies last year, Mr Carter was concerned that they may not have realised the implications, such as turning off the tap on taxpayer subsidy of industry research.
But he admitted farmers had voted down levies and "at this stage, we've got accept they made the decision, and we've now got to give this body time to prove itself to the woolgrowers".
The minister initially convened the latest in a long line of wool taskforces, which warned that the perilous state of the wool sector was placing the future of sheep farming in New Zealand at risk.
The taskforce skirted politically sensitive issues such as who got what wrong in the industry and instead called for "one voice" for the industry.
If sustainably-farmed New Zealand wool could be combined with the right products and brands, in the right markets, with the right retailers and final producers, "there is an opportunity to restore profitability to wool growing and enhance ... sheep farming," the taskforce said.
But there would need to be a "transformation" in the way that the sector interacted with manufacturers and consumers, and this transformation should be the long-term goal of the sector.
It also called for demand rather than supply to be boosted.
And suggested lifting demand for wool by lifting demand for the products made from wool, best done by partnering with consumer-oriented companies.
Only one such company was listed in the Wool Group membership announced today -- Cavalier Corporation -- but Dr Horn said members would look at signing up other companies aimed at the end-users.
Dr Horn -- who spent 10-1/2 days over several months getting the various industry factions aligned -- said he was now expecting taxpayer-funded research to resume, because Government funding officials had a single body to deal with. There was an application before Government officials for four projects put together though a wool research consortium.
The Wool Group's next step would be to elect an independent chair, but Dr Horn said he had removed himself from the running for this post.
And over the next 18 months the group will add to its membership the Beef and Lamb New Zealand meat industry board -- the former producer board against which some farmers said they were rebelling when they axed levies.
"Sheep grow meat as well as wool," said Mr Horn.
"Beef and Lamb have a number of wool activities that are of vital importance to the wool industry, and members want to keep those".
"There's a lot of stuff that they're doing that needs to be supported over the next 18 months, and then we'll just suck it and see."
Mr Carter recently told shearers that it was vital that farmer confidence in the strong wool industry for carpet making was restored quickly, or it may never be resurrected.
"If we do not reignite this confidence, it is in the hands of the farmers to breed sheep with very little shearing, and if this happens, the strong wool industry would never be resurrected," he said.
