Australian Wool Innovation pushes global marketing with new boss

Australian Wool Innovation head of operations Scott Carmody included a visit to Wagin Woolorama to seek out growers’ sentiment as a new momentum gathers with the research and marketing body. “Our team at AWI are excited to welcome Bryan Fry as the newly appointed chief executive officer to his role beginning on March 9,” he said. “It’s a breath of fresh air — there is that real difference of where we will be headed towards with Bryan with his whole different skill set. “He is a highly experienced and highly credentialed individual coming into that role, he knows the markets and has global experience.” Mr Carmody said woolgrowers will benefit with a new push in the wool market. “The aim will be a big push into those global markets at a premium price — I think it’s a good fit and the board will support it,” he said. “I have had several meetings in WA this week to talk with woolgrowers to see what their sentiment is and reassure them that what AWI offers to anyone across Australia is available in WA. “At the moment the wool market is running hot.” Mr Carmody said AWI was not too concerned about that falling off. “The Chinese have been following the market and during the last two weeks the Indians are coming into the market which is adding emphasis to the price,” he said. “With the market rising 40 to 50 cents a week, that is very sustainable. If it was any more than that it could be unstable in the short term. “The raw bones is there is a downturn in supply out of Australian and other regions, Australia has dropped down about 245–250 million kilograms in production.” Mr Carmody said the lower supply issue was obviously playing into the thinking that this was not only on the minds of the end users but also affected the machinery demand that had been built up and the export trading community that have to have bales to sale. “A lot of that demand is driven out of trading and machinery coupled with that slight uptake in the demand at the consumer facing end,” he said. “This is giving credence to the fact that this may be sustainable. “We are here to find out the temperature of WA woolgrowers, after spending a lot of time out and about in NSW, Queensland, Victoria and SA during that past few weeks. There is a definite move to want to get back into wool sheep. We are going to help those people.” Mr Carmody said the issue at the moment was two-fold. “The money involved in wool, sheep, and lamb is good and on the other side there has been a lot of disappointment in cropping,” he said. “The input costs in NSW is hitting $1400 to $1500 per hectare — we are only seeing canola. “If you can grow it, it is the only grain out-stroking what a good smart wool or mixed enterprise is doing. “With most of wool processing now being pushed by spinners, weavers and top makers (first and secondary stage) it is unlikely that China’s processors will re-direct their fibre choice.” Mr Carmody said China had the ability to blend. “We used to think pure wool was selling, but the blending with fabrics to make them more technical is helping us to sell wool into the consumer market at the price they can afford to pay,” he said. “This works for the Chinese consumer market — our estimates are they consume about 25 per cent of the raw wool that is imported. ”They can easily go from a 80-20 blend to a 50-50 blend depending on what sort of uniform — this gives them the ability to produce those meters of fabric at the price they can make those uniforms out of.” Mr Carmody said trade with India would represent about 6-7 per cent of Australia’s market, up a bit on last year. “They have a lot of machinery investment and are becoming more luxury focus in their markets with the growing availability of money, they want to dress better. “We have been hearing the rhetoric from consumers that they are not going to buy or wear plastic, and I think we are starting to see the results of that. The consumer is starting to vote with their credit card and thinking about the environment when they are purchasing.”