If there is no wholesale buy in on an agreed path forward, the wool industry should hang up its shears and go home.The Wool Industry Taskforce is on schedule to produce a report to Agriculture Minister David Carter in the next two weeks.Mr Carter told NBR
If there is no wholesale buy in on an agreed path forward, the wool industry should hang up its shears and go home.
The Wool Industry Taskforce is on schedule to produce a report to Agriculture Minister David Carter in the next two weeks.
Mr Carter told NBR he has seen a draft of the report and said it was a clear indication the members of the taskforce worked well together.
“They have grappled with the issues faced by the wool industry and are clearly looking forward,” Mr Carter said.
New Zealand’s wool industry was left rudderless following last year’s Meat and Wool NZ referendum. After five years of collecting wool levies, farmers voted against its plans for the next five years leaving it with no mandate for wool moving forward.
Following the upset, Mr Carter gathered industry representatives together and out of that meeting created the Wool Industry Taskforce.
It’s role was to develop a set of principles on how to increase profitability across the strong and mid-micron wool value chain and also sell the ideas it generates to producers.
Export revenues from the industry have been in decline as volumes drop. Last year the industry pulled in $574 million based on 128,000 tonnes. Three years earlier it was worth $668 million.
In its situation and outlook report, the Ministery of Agriculture and Forestry predicts further declines until next year and then a gradual increase due to growing demand in China.
Mr Carter said while 100% consensus on a path forward for the industry is a high threshold there a “high degree” of buy in is required.
“The industry is dead in the water if this is not accepted,” he said.
“Unless there is unity in the industry and the sniping between people stops, there is no chance to make a profit.”
From his end, Mr Carter said he would continue to drive the thrust for change, whatever form it might take but it was more vital wool producers shared a common focus.
Mr Carter said once he received the final report from the taskforce in the next fortnight he would gather together the same group of industry leaders to work on it.
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