Keen Team In I. IF. S.

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32233, 27 February 1970, Page 7

Keen Team In I. IF. S.

PART IV The I.W.S. today is a very sophisticated organisation working. round the world in more than 20 countries with its feelers going out into other areas too.

One of the things that impressed us everywhere was the enthusiasm of the staff of the secretariat at headquarters and at branch level. Wool producers may feel thankful that they have such a devoted team working in their interests and I think, , too, that there is a real consciousness that they are spending growers’ money and it should be put to the best possible use. That the secretariat concept is on the right lines is, 1 think, perhaps most strikingly brought out by .the fact that while we were in Britain we met Mr R. G. Lund, the New Zealander who was formerly deputy managing director of the I.W.S. He has been consulting with cotton producers who are interested in organising some sort of similar organisation to promote the interests of their fibre. been suggested in some quarters that perhaps New Zealand, with its major share of crossbred wool in world trade, should scale down its support of the secretariat and concentrate on research and product development and technical service in support of its own produce. There was not much sympathy for this idea in secretariat circles overseas. The feeling was that a country of New Zealand's size could not possibly support the headquarters and superstructure necessary for such an operation. Indeed one could not escape the feeling that it would be a most retrograde step when the secretariat has geared up for a world effort and New Zealand wool is sold in the four corners of the globe. Any such effort in this part of the world should obviously be dovetailed in with the secretariat’s global effort Returning to the question whether the producer is getting his value out of the secretariat, I would refer to some views expressed by Mr Andrew Zentler, the director of the secretariat’s economic service, a few months ago. He does not hold at all that the secretariat should be expected to produce a fair sort of return to the grower. He suggests rather than the producer should measure the worth of the secretariat like that of an investment in superphosphate on his farm or on the share market, and in this he' feels that the secretariat would come out well. Is it conceivable, he asks, if the secretariat had riot existed in the last 10 years that the demand for wool and the price would be what it is today? There would not have been any incentive for the consumer or the industry to be aware of wool and it would have slipped two or three times as fast as it has. Mr J. Wilcox, the United Kingdom and Ireland branch director of the 1.W.5., says that wool cannot hope to bold its share of the textile market simply because it is expanding faster than wool production, but what they want to see is that the volume of wool is at the top end of the market, where there is the best profit margin, and that is something that is playing into the bands of wool

these days—there has been recently a better profit mar- ; gin in it than in the excessively low priced synthetics. As time has passed con- ; sumers have also frequently tended to become disillusioned with the perform- [ ance of some of these man- , made fibres.

I must mention before I finish one group of people who are working in growers' interests very enthusiastically and that is the 14 women in the International Wool Fashion Office in Paris and the fashion advisers in the branches of the secretariat round the world who are seeking to influence fashion trends in women’s wear. This is an important field of activity for women’s wear often accounts for 20 to 30 per cent of wool usage in an individual country and fashion to women is a very big thing. The 1.W.F.0. people set out deli-

berately to develop fashions in wool and then to persuade industry to use their ' designs and colours. It is of interest that in their future planning, which often starts some two years ahead of goods reaching retail stores, they are forecasting a return to longer women’s garments. The vivacious French woman, Madame Claude Helen Neff, who heads the 1.W.F.0. in Paris, says that when a fashion penetrates every possible level of the women’s world it is no longer in fashion and while some males unashamedly say that the mini-skirt is the greatest invention since the wheel,, Madame 'Neff says it is oh the way out and we saw in the streets of London this autumn women in coatsal most down to their ankles looking in imminent danger of toppling over as they became entangled in them. But think of the extra wool that must go into these garments! One of the interesting sidelines that we came across in the course of out travels was interest in Hong Kong, in particular, in the use of wool, in women’s wigs. In Hong Kong there are no fewer than 400 wig factories with a production worth some SNZBOm to s9om per year. The regional director of the I.W.S. there, Mr Paul Williams, is an enthusiast for the use of wool in wigs and has been actively working with manufacturers to that end. He believes that coarser New Zealand wools

could have a place here. In New York there were also promising reports of the use of Lincoln wool, with a polymer insertion to coarsen up the fibre, in wigs, and mention of some New Zealand farmers being! interested in producing: some especially long t wool for this purpose—per-1 haps letting fleeces grow for! a couple of seasons to qua-: lify for a price of possibly! dollars a pound instead of I a miserable 20c. In the light of current low prices for all classes of wool it is not possible to take a very rosy view of the outlook for wool. Certainly an organisation such as the I.W.S. is sorely needed to keep wool in the picture. However, producers need not, either, I think, get too pessimistic about the future for their product. (Concluded)

***********#****#>***##**#« Thia ia the final of a aeries of articles written bu a member of the staff of “The Press." who was a member of a pane of four New . Zealand. journalists which tinted - branches of the International Wool Sec- ' rctariat around the world at the end of last year. The trip was made under the auspices of the Wool Board.