KEY POINTS:
Mix Romney sheep with Nepalese rug makers, add a new deal with an American carpet seller and the result is bigger returns for Kiwi farmers.
So says Romney NZ, a body representing 1000 growers of the Romney breed, which has joined forces with rural services company Elders New Zealand to directly supply the US market with top quality rugs.
For the past 18 months Romney NZ has been sending wool to Nepal where artisans turn it into hand-spun, eco-dyed rugs.
It had so far sold the rugs only in New Zealand, chairman Hugh Taylor said, but with the volume of wool the group produced it needed to find a bigger market.
Enter Elders, which has signed a major deal to directly supply parts of the US carpet retailing and manufacturing industry with New Zealand strong or carpet wool.
As part of that effort it has negotiated a supply relationship with US luxury rug seller Everett Deneane for the Nepalese-made, New Zealand Romney-produced product.
Taylor said over 90 per cent of carpets and rugs sold in the US were synthetic, and the Americans had had enough of man-made fibres.
There was demand at the top end for sustainable, traceable products, and the deal would target the lucrative US interior decoration market.
Romney was a registered breed that could trace its roots back to the 14th century, a history the Americans found "intriguing", Taylor said.
It meant New Zealand farmers would need to meet certain standards, but the American buyers had indicated they would pay increased returns for quality and traceability, he said.
Strongwool prices have sunk so low that farmers are shearing simply for animal welfare reasons. Elders has said its initiative to sell directly to the US and reposition wool as a luxury fibre was aimed squarely at trying to boost returns for growers.
The first consignment of 500 Nepali rugs was due in Atlanta by July, Taylor said.
