Lambswool in demand at South Island sale

Photo / File

A large offering of 9200 bales of end-of-season crossbred fleece met with resistance at this week's South Island wool sale in Christchurch yesterday.

Prices were generally cheaper compared to the previous sale, while best prepared lambswool continued to attract most favour from buyers.

Almost all lambswool lots were cleared from the auction floor, PGG Wrightson Wool's South Island sales team said.

Roger Fuller, of CP Wool, said passings of 13 per cent was a good indication of the difficult market conditions and an increasing currency was also not helping.

In Westpac's latest Agri Update, senior economist Anne Boniface said China suspended wool exports from South Africa in February due to an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease.

While South Africa was a much smaller wool producer than Australia or New Zealand, the ban could support Chinese demand for wool from New Zealand.

That was not the first time the gate had been shut on South African wool exports; there was another foot-and-mouth outbreak and in 2000 and, in 2011, Rift Valley fever impacted trade.

There was a lift in wool prices during those periods, Boniface said.

A range of prices:

S A Harbrow (Dunedin), seven bales Perendale lambs AA, 29.3 micron, 81.4% yield, 491 greasy, 603 clean; Parkside Quarries Ltd (Oamaru), 20 bales crossbred lambs AA, 29.2 micron, 79.4% yield, 501 greasy, 631 clean, and six bales crossbred hogget AA, 33.2 micron, 78.9% yield, 335 greasy, 425 clean; Minaret Station (Otago), 14 bales Perendale second-shear, 35.6 micron, 77.1% yield, 236 greasy, 306 clean; Mt Watkins Ltd (Otago), nine bales crossbred lambs, 31 micron, 78.6% yield, 413 greasy 525 clean; El Dorado (Otago), 44 bales Romney lambs, 30.7 micron, 81.2% yield, 453 greasy, 558 clean; A E Denham Ltd (Otago), 19 bales Romney lambs, 31.5 micron, 79.5% yield, 374 greasy, 470 clean; Grant Enterprises (Otago), 13 bales crossbred lambs, 29.7 micron, 79.1% yield, 486 greasy, 615 clean; D and C Graham (Otago), 15 bales crossbred lambs, 31.6 micron, 79.4% yield, 360 greasy, 453 clean; Glen Dene Ltd (Otago), six bales crossbred lambs, 28.6 micron, 79% yield, 531 greasy, 672 clean.