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Australia's lucrative wool exports to Europe are under threat amid allegations of intimidation and bribery by Australian government and wool industry officials in Sweden, the Sydney Morning Herald reported yesterday.
The paper reported the Swedish government is urging consumers to boycott Australian wool, and retailers are banning it because of mulesing, the practice of cutting skin from the backsides of sheep, without pain relief, to prevent flystrike.
A Swedish current affairs show, Kalla Fakta (Cold Facts), is reported to have filmed a consultant for the Australian Wool and Sheep Industry Taskforce, and a man - said to be an Australian embassy official - offering a free trip to Australia to an anti-mulesing campaigner in exchange for not appearing on a TV show.
A spokesman for the taskforce's research and marketing arm, Australian Wool Innovation, denied that the trip offer was a bribe. The Australian Wool Growers Association called for the immediate resignation of the chairman of Australian Wool Innovations, former Coalition minister Ian McLachlan, and accused the body of mishandling the mulesing issue in Europe and North America.
Nineteen large clothing retailers in Sweden are banning Australian wool products. The chairman of Meat and Wool New Zealand, Mike Petersen, said the dispute would not affect New Zealand exports.
