That would give the market till late November to sell down the stockpile of this year’s unsold wool, PGG Wrightson South Island manager Dave Burridge said.
Crossbred wool again struggled to sell at Thursday’s Christchurch auction. About 22% of offerings were passed in.
Good quality 37 micron wool sold at $3.25kg/clean but poor quality offerings were as low at $2.30/kg, a long way below the breakeven level for farmers, he said.
Vegetable matter in the wool was an issue at the lower end.
The pre-lamb shear wool would be coming into the market for the next three to four weeks, adding to the stockpile pressure, but after that Burridge hoped the next 10 weeks or so would allow levels to be sold down before the new shearing season got fully under way.
“It will be some breathing space, at least. It’s still a very difficult market.”
The difficulty was not just for wool going to auction but also for product further along the supply pipeline and looking for downstream buyers.
The auction market operated in four clear micron brackets and was very, very strong at the fine end up to 22 microns, strong in the 22 to 30 mid-micron bracket, had some reasonable business in the 30 to 33 range popular with Chinese buyers for use in semi-worsted yarn and dreadful at the coarser end beyond that.
“We need some innovation for other products for the wools that go into carpets and other interior textiles.”
Fine wools sold strongly but supply was very limited. Highlights were 18 micron at $23.10/kg clean and 20 micron at $18.50/kg clean.
A $12.23/kg clean price for 25.5 micron was also very good, slipping to $8.50/kg for 28 micron and $7.05/kg for 30 micron.
