Wool research funds clipped to the bone

By SIMON COLLINS


New Zealand's last researchers into basic wool biology have lost their funding, as what was once the country's biggest export earner has become a mere "byproduct" of meat production.

A company set up two years ago to take over sheep research funding, Ovita, has shifted all its budget out of wool into sheep reproduction, muscles, parasites and diseases.

The shift leaves a 10-person wool and skin genomics group at AgResearch's Ruakura Research Centre facing an insecure future once two years of "transition funding" runs out in June 2006.

The group, inherited by AgResearch from the former Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, is the only one in New Zealand still researching basic wool biology.

Lincoln-based Canesis, formerly the Wool Research Organisation, continues to research uses of wool in textiles, haircare and cosmetics. But it also lost $1 million in this year's Foundation for Research, Science and Technology (FoRST) funding round.

Ovita chief executive Damian Camp said wool research simply could not deliver the tangible returns the company needed for its shareholders.

"Basically it came down to, biotechnology is an expensive area of research, and what is the likelihood of being able to transform the wool clip to add value?" he said.

"We said, unless we can add dollars per kilogram, it's a very difficult thing to do.

"You can tweak it and look for improvement by a few cents per kilogram, but that really doesn't justify the expenditure."

Wool's decline has been dramatic. In the 1880s, it earned almost 70 per cent of New Zealand's overseas income. By the 1950s and 60s it was down to 36 per cent, but still our biggest earner. This year it is down to just 2.5 per cent, only one-sixth of the earnings from meat.

The average price in the season just ended, $4.69 a kg, was still well down on the peak before last, $6.15 in 1989-90, despite a boom in what is now our largest wool market, China.

AgResearch chief executive Dr Andy West said the state-owned institute was turning to Australia to take over funding for its wool research. "There is a big contrast between the Australian commitment to wool research and ours. Australia is still going at it hammer and tongs."