New outlet for wool?

Press, 15 June 1979, Page 8

New outlet for wool?

It does not look as though there is any likelihood of there being a lack of outlets for wool.

A party of more than 20 Japanese, including leading bedding and wadding manufacturers, were in Canterbury last week looking for suitable wool to fill what the Japanese call quilts, but which are, in fact, the mattresses that they sleep on. In a country with more than 100 M people the thought of all their quilts or mattresses being filled with wooL makes the mind boggle. Indeed some quick calculations made by members of the party before they left Christchurch for the North Island revealed that use of wool for this purpose — if only wool was used — might develop into a business worth S4OM or even more.

The only problem is that supplies of suitable wool may be limited. However there may be possibilities of making other wools suitable for the purpose. The group was in New Zealand under the sponsorship of KanematsuGosho, Ltd, one of the leading textile firms in Japan, and a subsidiary, Kanematsu-Shinso Kaisha, Ltd.

The fact that the party included presidents and vice-presidents of companies in the bedding and wadding trade is believed to indicate the importance attached to its visit. It was led by Mr H. Kagiwada, a former chairman of the All Japan Cotton Wadding and Bedding Goods Manufacturers’ Cooperative Association. Members of the party explained that the use of wool in the quilts was a new development. Some

was now being used but it was in the experimental or trial stage. In the past cotton or synthetic fibre had been used to fill the quilts. Now, however, with higher incomes and rising living standards, people were looking for higher quality products, and even if they cost more money they did not mind. Wool was regarded as being a healthy product with good warmth-retain-ing characteristics. An important consideration in the minds of the Japanese manufacturers was that it was likely to be in constant supply, whereas the uncertainty about oil .supplies in the future cast doubts on the availability of synthetic fibres. In the last few years wadding has been imported from Germany, but a spokesman for the visiting party said that the Japanese now considered they should develop their own products, importing their own supplies of wool. In this they had the

strong support of the International Wool Secretariat in Japan.

The wool that the Japanese want for this purpose should be springy and bulky and should not “migrate” or come out of the quilt. It should be about 6cm long. It is thought that Southdown or Down cross wool is the most suitable, but supplies of these are limited —hence the desirability of looking at the possibility of modifying other wools to meet the same needs.

The Japanese party visited the Kaputone wool scour at Belfast; Lincoln College where they watched shearing; the Wool Research Organisation; and the Feltex carpet factory at Riccarton. As well as looking for wool for filling quilts, they were also interested in the wool industry in New Zealand from the growing of the fibre, its marketing and flow from farm to factory, and the supporting research. *