“It’s absolutely crucial the next step is real purpose, this report will most certainly not be sitting gathering dust,” O’Connor said.
“The project action group (PAG) has rounded up the situation, connected with industry players and provided some real guidance for the next step.
“With the absence of major initiatives from the industry I have to be responsible to put something up.”
In doing that, O’Connor said he wants to work with some of the major wool players.
“I am committed to ensuring the recommendation in the report for the establishment of a governance group is followed through and I will be working through that with PAG.
“I’ll have more I can report on in the next two weeks,” he said.
O’Connor said his vision for this group is to oversee a clear and detailed strategy with some timelines.
Once the governance group is established the recommendation to look at appointing an executive officer will become the responsibility of that group.
Funding for the group and executive officer remains a work in progress at this stage.
The new group will be appointed by O’Connor and he anticipates will include global experts specialising in consumer-focussed strategy.
“Absolutely this has to be a commitment to international markets and opportunities to map out some strategic investment cases for the strong wool industry,” he said.
“Any representation first and foremost must deliver back to the wool producer – the farmer, without whose commitment this will fail.
“Industry has been given plenty of time to state their case, it’s now for us to really get in and give farmers a real pathway of optimism.
“Every international indicator points to huge potential in wool.”
O’Connor acknowledged the industry had lost all structure and initiatives over the past 20 years and perhaps the former Wool Board wasn’t such a bad entity.
“For all its failings and faults the Wool Board was an entity that gave some structure, it needed radical reform of the entity, not to destroy it,” he said.
“There was promise of new innovation and that never happened, instead $100 million was frittered away and wool farmers never saw any of it.”
A new generation of farmers now has not seen the benefit of wool values, but they do see the potential of new customer values.
“People have done their best in an unco-ordinated and disorganised way to develop wool potential but the reality is without collective initiative ideas never fly high enough,” O’Connor said.
Mount Somers Station farmer and Federated Farmers provincial meat and wool chairman David Acland said farmers need to look outside the farm gate to get an understanding of who they are working with.
“We need to make sure we are not just putting wool into an auction but instead working with a broker and making sure conversations with the broker are digging deeper about where our wool is going.
“As farmers we must make sure our wool preparation is up to scratch and that means having the broker coming into the shed at least once a year to work with the shearing contractor.
“It’s small steps but I believe the market is wanting that,” Acland said.
Acland sees benefit in one industry baseline that everyone is working off.
He likened a new wool industry structure to that of the red meat industry.
“There’s a whole lot more discipline within the meat industry of how you sell and with contracts there’s an understanding of what and how to prepare.”
Acland said for farmers to demand that consumers buy wool they must have pride in what they are producing, including wearing wool themselves.
Wools of NZ chairman James Parsons said the wool vision and action report rings true on multiple levels and while it may have been a while coming it’s important to get behind the recommendations.
“The highlighted opportunities are real, the challenge for the sector is to pull together enough self-belief to realise the opportunities,” Parsons said.
He said PAG should not be criticised given its representation, for not recommending structural reform and specific commercial recommendations.
“That responsibility sits with the commercial players who now need to work together picking up the report recommendations to drive the necessary change, Parsons added.
“Growers deserve better than what they have been getting.
“It’s time to reignite the pride and purpose in what we grow and Wools of NZ as a grower-owned marketing and export company is committed to play our part and do better also.
“A skilled and capable wool industry governance group and executive will in my view add value and play an important part in lifting the sector out of the doldrums.”
