NEW ZEALAND-DROP IN SHEEP FLOCK HITS WOOL INDUSTRY.
THE decline in the national wool flock has implications beyond the farm gate for Design Spun, a Napier business which specialises in processing possum, angora, mohair, alpaca and fine wools through to coarser crossbred fibres.
The closure of wool scours in New Zealand because of over capacity has general manager Brendan Jackson pondering the logistics of getting his specialist fibres scoured in future.
Remaining scours are at Timaru, Christchurch, Whakatu, and Awatoto, both in Hawkes Bay along with Clive, which is part of the rationalisation.
Design Spun is also BioGro certified, which is a consideration when fibre has to be scoured.
The company sells its processed fibres as yarns to the textile trade, commercial machine knitters as well as weavers, crafters and hand knitters.
A staff of 30 people card, comb and process the wool on site. Fibres are
currently scoured at Awatoto, Timaru and Clive but Mr Jackson believed there were questions surrounding its future.
The main concern for larger scour operators is how much wool they can put through in an hour.
The issue for Design Spun is that they process about 150,000 tons of fibre a year and the range of fibres they handle means that scouring has to be done in small lots of about two ton at a time. So the company requires a scour service which is flexible enough to cater for specialist batch lots.
Organic wool growers are in a similar position.
"Having future access to the service and at a realistic price is what concerns us. Because this downsizing is about throughput," Mr Jackson said.
He thought scouring at Clive would probably continue.
"But the scour operator might say to us, we will do black wool once or twice a year. It will be at their whim and we will have to hold stock back."
This would have obvious implications for how Design Spun handles its forward planning and deals with fulfilling future contracts for clients.
While Mr Jackson appreciated the point of view of the large scours, he said there was certainly a fear that rationalisation of the industry would impact on his business.
Australia was in a similar position with few working scours left. The entire trade was experiencing difficult times – from the growers right through to the industrial processors, Mr Jackson said.
For a group of people to buy and establish a small scour for specialty wools is the logical solution, however it would be a major, costly undertaking.
Scours require a lot of space and use considerable amounts of water. They require resource consents which have to meet tough environmental standards.
Mr Jackson believed the commercial viability of a specialist stand-alone scour was questionable.
The infrastructure to support the industry was also diminished. Scouring was the most obvious example, but another was machinery agents who had had gone offshore – spare parts for textile machines were now difficult to source.
"The textile industry needs that support and it is vanishing."
