Wool growers to seek better news online

By Glenys Christian

Over the gate


Around the country woolgrowers are putting wool aside in their sheds rather than selling it immediately.

At first it might appear they are trying to last out the present appallingly low prices.

But, in fact, their stockpile is for a much more positive reason - the new electronic selling vehicle Woolnet, which comes online soon.

The concept was launched by the Wool Board subsidiary WoolPro in July and now the finishing touches are being made so trading can get under way.

Some farmers are so keen to try it that they are resisting pressure from buyers.

Inquiries have already come in from South Africa, South America, Australia and Europe about both buying and selling via the internet.

One of the first expressions of interest came from the Falkland Islands, a small wool producer which could immediately see how it might benefit from a shop window for its fibre which the world can look into at will.

The problem for New Zealand woolgrowers is to keep their eyes firmly on just such a big picture. There is a lot distraction around - most of it, as usual, to do with industry politics.

At its annual general meeting in Rotorua next month, the Wool Board will face four motions of no confidence - a direct indication of farmers' frustrations.

The board, for its part, has cut spending, tightened controls in many areas of its operations and protests that it is taking on board farmer concerns more than ever before.

But farmers, faced with the board's initiating yet another review of their industry, want action, not words.

This is what Woolnet will be able to provide. It will be up to the farmers how much wool they put up for sale, what reserve price, if any, they will attach to it and which offer they will accept.

The board's part of the bargain has been simply to go where no commercial company was prepared to and put the system in place at a cost understood to be around $500,000.

In their condemnation of the board, farmers have not acknowledged that some organisation needed to take the steps it has over recent years. Even the inevitable conflict with wool exporters, which has occurred along the way, has helped.

As with every other sector of the industry, they know more clearly now than ever that no one owes them a living. They will need to show that, compared with Woolnet, their charges and overseas contacts add real value to the wool they handle - value which will end up back in farmers' pockets.

The board's chief executive, Jeff Jackson, who recently announced he was leaving the job at the end of the year, was brought in as an agent of change.

And change aplenty there has been, apart from the way some farmers think.

While they continue to focus their attentions on the board as their whipping boy, they are missing the myriad opportunities that its hands-off approach now allows them.

Blaming someone else doesn't bring commercial results. But some farmers all too willingly let it lift the responsibility for the survival of their industry from their very own shoulders.

* Glenys Christian's e-mail address is glenys@farmindex.co.nz