The group tasked with lifting New Zealand’s strong wool sector out of the doldrums is on track to deliver.
With a 12-month contract and a $3.5 million dollar budget, the Strong Wool Action Group (SWAG) is working on leaving a legacy of a more connected and coordinated forward-looking, consumer-focused wool sector, embracing its place within the natural world.
The group is scheduled to sign-off at the end of this year and chair Rob Hewett is confident it is on track to deliver.
“We will make the grade, it’s a long game, but we are positioning sound opportunities to realise and commercialise several projects and who we are going to do this with,” Hewett said.
While it was too early at this stage to divulge the specifics, he says six to eight projects have been identified from the IDEO insights and the group is engaging with several different entities.
SWAG commissioned world-leading design thinking company IDEO for research into American consumers, to understand their consumption habits and emerging trends in sustainability.
This is expected to catalyse new thinking and initiatives in NZ’s strong wool industry to match growing consumer demand for high-quality, sustainable goods.
“The focus is over a number of consumer-faced opportunities that we intend to release in due course,” he said.
“The key insight for me is whatever we do we have got to be sure we are understanding and driving products and the supply chain for what the consumer wants, not what we think they want.
“Consumers don’t have a problem with wool, they have a problem with health and safety.”
So, how can SWAG offer something new for a strong wool sector that has lacked investment, with the loss of core sector capabilities and coordination of investment resulting in many of the industry’s critical development capabilities declining over the past 20 years?
The lack of profitability and investment has seen sheep numbers fall almost 50% since 1995, from 49 million to not much over 20m, with wool production falling 51% from 213 million kilograms to 105m kg.
The decline has halted investment in the work that keeps the sector functional across research and development, training and capability, sector data collection, pan-sector accreditation and standards, and sector connection and coordination.
Evolving consumer demands and the investment and transformation necessary to support the economic recovery from covid-19 is what offers the wool sector an opportunity to lift its market and export position.
Hewett says markets are shifting, with consumers and large consumer brands looking for natural fibres that have a strong environmental story and supply large-scale supply chains.
NZ’s strong wool sector can meet these market needs if it can shift how it engages with global consumers and collaborate to renew investment in the sector.
“What we are doing is different to identify and develop solutions to meet what the consumer wants as opposed to being throughput driven,” he said.
“The challenge is it’s not all about the farmer, it’s about getting rid of the throughput mentality, understanding the consumer and what they want, then maximising the opportunities.
“Branded product is powerful; It takes time and it’s expensive, but when we get that right it will deliver returns back to the processors and the farmers.”
While a lot of the partnerships being formed will be with offshore entities, NZ will initially be the test bed with a number of local companies also having offshore reach.
“If farmers think strong wool prices will double overnight, then they have got us wrong – this is a long burn; the opportunities are in front of us and fundamentally if we do the groundwork to get this right, it will be fantastic,” he said.
“We are driven by that and we are optimistic that we have a number of niche opportunities for strong wool that have not been thought about before.
“This is not just about scoured wool anymore, it is about value in the end product, but it is all relentless around the consumer.
Hewett says he is pleased how it is all coming along.
