New wool marketing standards to be enforced

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 4, Issue 49, 26 May 1987, Page 8

New wool marketing standards to be enforced

A wool industry campaign to lift standards in marketing begins with the new selling season. Quality assurance teams representing wool exporters, brokers and the Wool Board will be operating at every auction. After August 1, wool will not be accepted in second hand packs unless they have been repaired by an authorised recycler. Approved packs will carry a distinctive mark. All packs will have new caps, which should

solve the problem of illegible brands, but any sewn with synthetic string or baling twine will have to be resewn. On the display floor, the quality assurance teams will be looking for cotts in lines of mainly free wool and lines that are severely mixed for breed, length or fineness. The worst cases will be withdrawn from sale; with others the Wool Board may deduct a rehandling charge from its flexible support price at the auction, or it may decline to bid this price level at all. (Growers will still receive the minimum floor price). In all cases, the broker will be advised before the sale so that the grower client can be consulted. Later the grower will receive a letter from the team explaining the action. A sample of the fault will be retained and the grower offered the assistance of the Board's field staff. Industry spokesmen stress that they do not expect the teams to be busy. Serious faults in presentation are relatively few; the teams will be looking only for lines that would do serious damage to the reputation of New Zealand wool if they went unchecked. "They will be looking at important processing faults that are avoidable with reasonable care," says the Board's National Wool Production Manager, Mr L. K. (Lance) Wiggins. "That particularly applies to drafting into mobs for breed or wool length before shearing. It also means keep-

ing cotts out of open fleece." "I would emphasise it is not a campaign against poorly grown, cotted or discoloured wool — faults which are the natural result of the country on which the sheep are running. That is recognised and those clips will not be penalised." Nor is the campaign directed solely at woolgrowers, says Mr Wiggins. The quality assurance teams will be looking at brokers' bin lines and interlots. The industry is also concerned with the standard of sampling in scours and the stores of private merchants, the supervision exercised by the test houses, the marketing of slipe and what happens to packs in high density presses. The Wool Board is pressing the case for specification of all wool exports so that overseas manufacturers can be fully informed. "Eventually everyone will be involved," says Mr Wiggins. "It is an industry campaign directed by the National Council of New Zealand Wool Interest in Christchurch." "The Council is fully representative and has rewritten its constitution to make quality assurance a major part of its responsibilities." "The Board is not seeking to use any statutory power to achieve the necessary improvements but expects to work closely with all wool interests working through the council to enhance grower returns."