New Zealander’s work in wool handling

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32802, 30 December 1971, Page 9

New Zealander’s work in wool handling

Dr I. E. B. Fraser, head of the Wool Research Organisation’s biochemistry, wool-handling and marketing sections, leaves Christchurch this week on nis way to London to become

head al the wool-handling services section of the International Wool Secretariat.

He said last week that he expected the work of his department, established a little more than two years ago, to expand with the development of new marketing concepts in member countries of the secretariat, in that a reduction in costs at the levels of wool preparation, transport, handling and delivery would form an integral part of any processes of marketing reform. The wool handling • services department was set up to provide research facilities in the marketing, handling, testing, distribution, and transport of greasy wool from the farm to the Northem Hemisphere mill and

to provide a bridge between manufacturers in all parts of the world and wool growers in Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and Uruguay, who are all members of the I.W.S. Thus on one hand it works with the development division of the Australian Wool Board and sections of the Wool Boards in New Zealand, South Africa and Uruguay, and on the other with manufacturers in the United Kingdom and Europe. Discussing some of the things that the department was doing, Dr Fraser said that it had become involved in an investigation of shipping marks on bales of wool because it was quite clear that if shipping marks and their methods of application could be improved, the costs of handling could be reduced at ports on either side of the world and in storage and at the overseas mills to the advantage of both the overseas client and the grower. In the past whilst South Africa had been highly rated in this respect, Dr Fraser said that New Zealand had been the subject of considerable criticism over bale marking as well as shipping marks. The department, he continued, was liaising closely with mills on the matter of the most economic form of wool package to meet changing systems of transport Consideration was being given to increasing the bale weight to a level considerably in excess of the present 300 to 3201 b. Improved dumping methods and the likely advantages of dense baling were also very important considerations, he said. The application of dense baling at the farm stage did not appear to be feasible at present and it was envisaged that it would be done in wool stores or at wool scours, and while this involved a further handling it would result in economies at subsequent stages of handling and it was therefore desirable that it be done as near as possible to the original preparation point. At present, he said that dumping achieved densities of the order of about 19 to 211 b to the cubic foot and systems of denser dumping had been de-

veloped to give densities of 26 to 301 b to the cubic foot and it was hoped to achieve such densities and up to as high as 351 b per cubic foot with just one pressing operation. Economies of handling inside New Zealand as well as in shipping freights would be involved, he said. Evaluation of plastic packs was also proceeding. The successful introduction of polypropylene packs, which now accounted for 80 per cent of all bales exported from Australia, had brought about a reduction, in freight costs as well as in the cost of the actual bale covering itself. New Zealand was at present investigating on a trial basis six or more different types of plastic pack. For some years now South Africa had been using woven paper packs. With the synthetic packs bale marking was a problem, which was not the case with the South African paper packs or the jute packs used in New Zealand. Work on wool handling and preparation practices also included investigations into the degree of sorting done in mills where crossbred, halfbred and Merino wools were processed. Such questions as “what broad categories require sorting? How much sorting is done?” and so on were being asked. The implications here were how new handling practices in mills affected the preparation requirements at the level of the farm shed or merchant’s or broker’s store. And while they required to be conversant with new processing trends in all cduntries, they had to weigh up how much weight should be given to, say, advice received from Japan as compared with the Continent or with the United Kingdom. Handling practices should also relate closely to the properties that manufacturers required in wool. Many manufacturers were now well advanced in methods- of applying objective measurement of wool characteristics and quality control in raw wool processing, and clearly the extent to which objective measurement and quality control should be related back to the initial level of the sale of the grower’s wool was something that must receive most close attention in the future. Australia, South Africa and New Zealand were at present all investigating the practicability and the advantages of introducing such accurate specification of wool characteristics, obtained through objective measurement, at the stage of raw wool sale. About a year ago Australia had established an objective measurement committee with sl.sm available to study this entire subject and in the last selling season many trials had been carried out using objective measurement methods as the basis of accurate appraisal of wool with considerable success. New Zealand work in this field had covered the same period but had met with less trade enthusiasm, although the trials in this country had been initiated by the Wool Board’s standards committee, which embraced considerable trade and wool industry representation. While technical reasons were advanced for inability to accept these techniques, Dr Fraser said there was an undoubted tendency to be reluctant to depart from conventional practices and to disturb the status quo. This was perhaps not surprising when at the present time the whole wool in-

dustry was in a state of flux in regard to future marketing administration. In respective experiments with objective specification of wool characteristics and sale of wool by sample with these specifications, Dr Fraser said that what had been achieved so far had been valuable, but it was necessary to perserve for longer to derive any gains, and while New Zealand had

earlier tended to be ahead of other grower countries in the field of new developments, these were now being taken further in South Africa and Australia.

Everyone in the trade here, fie said, seemed to be aware of the needs, but there was a place for more collaborative and collective effort, with rather more concern for the national good than for personal positions, if greater progress was to be made in the future. i Although many of the innovations involved in marketing and handling reform were logical enough, Dr Fraser said that the wool industry was an old one and this imposed restrictions on the speed with which new ideas would be taken up. He was confident that such changes would have to come about, but it was necessary to move forward “in haste, but slowly.” It was his view that a large proportion of those people already in the industry would continue to be involved in the future and of paramount importance would be the continued interest of the grower. Lower prices and lack of premiums for better types of wool had tended to lead to a Jess interested grower, he said. The earlier fears of growers that they might lose their identity as a result of marketing reforms now appeared to have developed into a loss of interest, but Dr Fraser added that while any method of collective marketing would require som e means of acquisition to obtain the product, it was essential that the grower did not become “depersonalised” from his product and this did not relieve him of responsibility with regard to the product that he was growing.

■With the establishment of the wool handling department and suggestions that it should also become involved in marketing, Di Fraser said that the I.W.S. was becoming involved from production through handling and marketing to the end user, and this extension of its activities should lead to a more coordinated approach enabling a better understanding of how each country fitted into the overall scheme for the best advantage of the fibre and also growers. Another aspect of the wool handling services department of the secretariat, he said, was to maintain a close liaison with the International Wool Textile Organisation, which was the official organisation representing end users in Europe in all matters including technical developments, such as objective measurement, which needed the blessing of such an organisation before it could be implemented. Dr Fraser, who leaves New Zealand tomorrow, will. have discussions in Australia and South Africa on his way to London and will also be interviewing more applicants for positions in his department. These have come from both of these countries and also this country.