Natural fibre tops the list

Craig Smith meets the Prince of Wales at Clarence House.

At 42 Craig Smith is loving his job. And who wouldn't if it included such landmark moments as tea with the the Prince of Wales at Clarence House, his home in London, and a couple of days in Madrid?

However, although it's all pleasure, it's not all leisure for the Lindisfarne College old boy who is at the forefront of the Campaign for Wool, the campaign of which the Prince is patron. This gives Smith the chance to help promote at the highest levels one of the loves his life: wool.

He grew up with it on a farm at Elsthorpe, where as a boy he was one of four generations of the family on the property, including great-grandfather Doug Smith, who took over as manager in about 1913 and later became a partner.

Thus, there's barely been a day when Smith hasn't been wrapped up in wool, either physically or emotionally.

Now based in Christchurch, as a director of global wool trader H Dawson, it was as a member and representative of the campaign's New Zealand Trust that he came to share tips with Prince Charles recently at the fifth anniversary of the campaign's launch.

Waiting at Leeds Bradford Airport for an early-morning flight to Madrid, for two days of more wool talk before heading home, he said: "My whole life is about wool. I've got the best job in the world.

"I'll never get the chance to represent New Zealand at anything else." Smith says the whole issue of sustainability in the wool industry is starting to hit home, with major global players, including China, home to the biggest national sheep flock in the world.

"The biggest issues are going to be supply," he said. "But I still believe there is a shift back to natural fibre." And there is "definitely a demand for wool with a story", which helps satisfy a personal drive to put buyers and users in touch with the origins of their wool. "That's where I get a buzz ... linking the farmer with the end-user," Smith says.

There are lots of uses for wool, he says, which puts him on the same wavelength as the Prince and his royal assent, using Clarence House earlier this month to demonstrate the natural fire-retardant qualities of wool.

Before a gathering of designers, tailors, journalists and industry representatives, the Prince indulged in a moment's pyromania to torch woollen and synthetic garments, duvets and carpet, and said: "The fire-retardant qualities of wool are compelling."

Where synthetic fibres quickly ignited and continued to burn, wool eventually lit but then fizzled out.

Smith said at the event, which was similar to a demonstration by the New Zealand Fire Service and Campaign for Wool New Zealand Trust during Prince Charles' visit as part of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Celebrations in 2012: "People would be wise to fill their homes with wool."

The event highlighted two of the campaign's most frequently made claims regarding wool's benefits: first, that it is a supremely safe fibre thanks to its natural fire-retardant properties and second, wool quickly biodegrades in soil -- a key ecological benefit. The Prince wrapped up celebrations urging all those in the industry to remember the long-term values of nature and her genius, that wool was one of the kindest and most beneficial of fibres, being sustainable and environmentally positive.

The primary aim of Campaign for Wool is to increase demand for wool on a global level, and Smith relishes being a part of it, a big part with H Dawson processing and trading 5 per cent of the world's wool fibre.

In his role as business development director, Smith has had sole charge of the Japanese market for the past 10 years. It can't be said he's ever thought seriously about what he'd be doing if it wasn't what he's doing now. Maybe not shearing, which he did learn, and at Cuss, in north Canterbury, he does have a "10-acre block with 70 sheep".

But whatever, it wouldn't be far from what he's doing now, about how to help make sure farmers make more money out of sheep.