“There is some good demand coming through for good coloured, good styled crossbred wool that gives us some positive indication that these types have finally bottomed out to usher in a recovery – albeit a slow one.
“Prices are solid,” Edwards said.
“Through the coming months the new season’s wool should continue to be well received by buyers.”
But coloured wools are to proving an issue with a significant quantity of discoloured wool continuing to come forward for sale.
Edwards said they are either new wools subject to humid colouring conditions or old stocks that have been held back from sale for some time.
“Wools held in storage for a degree of time will tend to decline in colour readings, resulting in more discolouring.
“The poorer the colour at shearing time the greater the tendency for increased colouring when held in the bales.”
Prices for those wools have declined and they, especially the worst coloured ones, are proving extremely challenging to meet any degree of demand, Edwards said.
New Zealand Wool Testing Authority chief executive Duane Knowles said humidity has been elevated over the past two seasons with increased degradation consistent for both North and South Island wools.
“Because wool is a biological product it will degrade with humidity, turning it white to yellow and making is less desirable for dying.”
This dis-colouring occurs both before and after shearing.
In the dying process whiter wool is better able to take pastel shades, therefore commanding a higher price.
Yellow or creamy wool with higher colour measurements can take only dark colour dyes which limits use among spinners, dyers and manufacturers.
As NZ produces the world’s whitest, brightest coarse wool, in normal circumstances it attracts a premium.
“However, when colour is high it can be substituted with wool from elsewhere, reducing demand and lowering market prices,” Knowles said.
He acknowledged that optimising colour is difficult.
“Although growers have little control over humidity they can control decisions around shearing times and patterns.
“The longer the wool is left on the sheep, the yellower it becomes and the longer it is stored for sale the more it degrades.
“Shearing on a six or eight-month cycle is preferable to a 12-month shearing pattern and minimal storage will also ensure optimum colour,” Knowles said.
Meanwhile, in the fine wool sector, prices for Australian wool that saw some recovery through May from a large degree of previous price declines have softened again, Edwards said.
NZ fine wool is off season now but based on excellent growing conditions the quality of NZ’s wool clip this year is expected to again be outstanding.
“When we do go back to market from July, fine wool growers of both Merino and halfbred should find their clip well sought after,” Edwards said.
