The Press THURSDAY, AUGUST 31, 1967. Cautious Hopes For Wool

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31462, 31 August 1967, Page 10

The Press THURSDAY, AUGUST 31, 1967. Cautious Hopes For Wool

The managing director of the International Wool Secretariat, Mr W. J. Vines, is an optimist about the prospects for wool During his visit to New Zealand he has been, to say the least, guarded in his optimism; and this caution seems well justified by events since the opening of the new selling season. Committees in Australia and New Zealand are still studying the marketing of wool; the I.W.S. and the International Wool Textile Organisation have yet to issue forecasts they are preparing on the demand for types of wool; and neither Mr Vines nor anyone else can predict with certainty whether the economies of the main wool-consuming countries will improve in time for the wool trade to pick up during the coming autumn and winter in the Northern Hemisphere. On this last point Mr Vines has admitted that the signs of improvement the I.W.S. hoped to see by now have not yet appeared. His account of the results of the secretariat’s work to promote the reputation of wool certainly gives cause for satisfaction. Whatever the future may hold, wool growers in New Zealand should be satisfied that they would be very much worse off but for the very vigorous promotional activities of the I.W.S. in the great wool-using countries of the Northern Hemisphere. )

The warnings that Mr Vines has given are perhaps more important than his cautious hopes for the future of wool. Manufacturers of carpets have been encouraged to commit themselves to wool rather than to synthetic fibres by the reasonable expectation that wool prices will be stable —and low—for the next two or three years. Farmers who are growing crossbred wool should not conclude from this that their wool has become a barely-profitable sideline of meat production and that they may disregard the quality of wool when breeding sheep. Mr Vines has emphasised the importance of quality in the sense of uniformity. This is important to manufacturers who can count on consistent quality if they use synthetic fibres. “There is little doubt that some New “ Zealand woolgrowers have gone in for crossbreeding “ to an extent that has made their wool unattractive “to buyers ”, Mr Vines has said. Except for carpets, the demand for the coarsest grades of crossbred wools is expected gradually to decline. The end uses of this wool become fewer as the wool becomes coarser, wool’s special qualities cease to be relevant, and this wool cannot command a premium price over other fibres. Happily, Mr Vines confidently predicts that in Europe, where wool is preferred for carpet-making, this industry will expand, perhaps quite spectacularly, in the next four years. The secretariat’s change of policy in favour of blending synthetics and wool for carpets in Britain ought to ensure that the volume of wool bought will be maintained even if the price must remain low.

Mr Vines said that, in the seven countries which are the major users of wool, the consumption of wool increased last year more than the consumption of all other fibres, including synthetics—and this in spite of a much greater drop in the prices of synthetics. Growers may thank the success of the secretariat’s efforts to promote wool, especially by the woolmark campaign, for the maintenance of wool’s reputation among consumers. Although the manufacturers and retailers of wool and woollen products enjoy more reliable profit margins than they do with synthetics, the consumers must expect the lower prices for some types of wool to be reflected in the prices of finished products. Unfortunately, even substantial changes in the price of raw wool do not produce substantial changes in the prices of garments and textiles; and the promotion of wool as a premium commodity—however justifiable on the score of quality and performance—may be used to protect inefficient and poorly-integrated industries. Growers and consumers can reasonably ask why the difference between retail prices of synthetic and woollen goods are as great as they often are. The woollen industry tends to be fragmented and, notwithstanding the existence of very large and efficient manufacturers, it tends to suffer from small-scale production when compared with the large-scale and highly-integrated production of synthetic garments and piecegoods. These are features of the textile industry beyond the influence of the I.W.S. In view of the advantages the synthetics industries command in manufacture it is significant that Mr Vines has been able to report that “ in the “ economic circumstances of the last year . . . wool, “ with the exception of strong crossbreds, has “undoubtedly fared less badly than other fibres”, and that the strong crossbreds “ have fared no worse