Fine wool a victim of trade barriers

By Glenys Christian

Over the gate

A bale of wool placed alongside a length of fabric spun from it would not strike many New Zealanders as being an upmarket sort of promotion.

But it most certainly is when that bale of wool is the most expensive purchased from this country and the fine Merino fibre is spun by Italy's leading weaver, Loro Piana, into material that will sell to a suit manufacturer for $1250 a metre.

Add the place of the promotion - the window of a store in the heart of Milan's fashion district - and you have a superb showcase for the fibre, the woolgrowers and the high-country environment that gives its strength, purity and customer appeal.

The managing director of the company that bears his surname, Pier Luigi Loro Piana, was in Auckland last week after signing another supply contract, worth more than $4 million, with Merino woolgrowers.

His company will obtain directly the small quantities of 19 micron wool that only 200 growers can produce, ship it to Italy and weave it into fabrics sought after by famous designers such as Armani and Prada.

Rather than dwell on the very considerable boost his company's name and reputation gives, Dr Loro Piana is at pains to give all credit to the qualities of the fibre and the painstaking care taken by those who produce it.

But while his attention and acclaim is all very flattering, New Zealand must ask how it can bring more of the benefits of the commercial liaison between him and woolgrowers back on shore.

Local company Cambridge Clothing is using the Zelander fabric his company makes in a suit range launched last year.

But why can't there be a broader move to add value to such a special fibre before it leaves this country?

Marlborough designer Donna Lambert broke new ground some years ago when she used pure Merino wool in a range of T-shirts, sweat shirts and trousers for the local market. But what should have been a unique chance to promote her designs at London Fashion Week turned sour after threats of a legal confrontation with Wools of New Zealand.

Much of the success of what Merino New Zealand and Dr Loro Piana have accomplished in a little over a year is due to ensuring that everyone involved feels that his or her part of the exercise is valued.

But most New Zealand sheepfarmers who produce coarse crossbred fleece see only the daily dwindling of their returns.

Shipments of their fibre to China have slumped, largely due to that Government's reluctance to issue import quotas under a deal much touted by the former Minister of Agriculture, Lockwood Smith.

For all the enthusiasm of the Dr Loro Pianas of this world, by far the larger effect on the farm and the economy is the lack of common purpose among the players, and bureaucratic obstructions to trade.

* Glenys Christian can be contacted by e-mail at glenys@farmindex.co.nz