Australian wool auctions produced positive results this week across all Merino wool types and descriptions while crossbred wools largely held their values. It was just the two Eastern Australian centres of Sydney and Melbourne that held auctions with 28,000 bales being put in front of the trade. A clearance rate of 85% was achieved for the week.  A gain of 15ac, or a touch over 1%, was made to the Eastern Market ... Read More

The Australian Wool Production Forecasting Committee (AWPFC) has updated its forecast of shorn wool production for the 2021/22 season. This second forecast is for production of 310 million kilograms (Mkg) greasy, a 5.2% increase on the 2020/21 estimated production of 294 Mkg greasy. This is an upward revision from the committee’s 305 Mkg forecast in April. Committee Chairman, Russell Pattinson said that “Widespre... Read More

The Schneider Group will host its second edition of the Wool Connect Online Grower Conference on 7 – 9 September 2021. The event will be scheduled across three days, with around 2-hour sessions each day. A wide range of speakers are scheduled to speak. In keeping with the format last year, each day will have a slightly different topic. Day one will focus on the international context for the wool industry. Here pa... Read More

Australian Wool Innovation has approved an extra $650,000 in funding for a collaborative project with CSIRO to fast-track further investigations into the development of a flystrike vaccine. This research is building on early findings from the AWI funded flystrike vaccine research by CSIRO and the University of Melbourne to tackle flystrike, which is progressing well and is revealing important information. AWI ... Read More

The latest independent review of performance conducted on Australian Wool Innovation (AWI) has found it is meeting its requirements for Governance, Collaboration and Research, Development and Extension. The report by international professional services firm Accenture found that “AWI’s performance has been appropriate” and the company “has shown notable improvement”. In fact, Accenture went on to add “while Boa... Read More

The first sale of the 2021 winter season took place in Port Elizabeth on 17 August 2021, with 88 723 kg on offer of which 99% was sold. The first sale of a season is always mixed and difficult to quote due to the big variation in the composition of the offering from one season to another. The competition between the mohair buyers was strong, with RMS-certified mohair being the most attractive on offer. The averag... Read More

The Texas A&M AgriLife Bill Sims Wool and Mohair Research Laboratory is ready with new capacities as expansion work continues and the lab receives new high-capacity commercial testing equipment. After shipping delays, new equipment from Australia was expected to arrive by ship in Houston. The newly expanded laboratory will utilize state-of-the-art machinery and technology – obtained through a cooperative agreemen... Read More

U.S. consumer sentiment dropped sharply in early August to its lowest level in a decade, in a worrying sign for the economy as Americans gave faltering outlooks on everything from personal finances to inflation and employment, a survey showed. The unexpected reading could give Federal Reserve policymakers pause if it translates in the months ahead to a dent in economic activity. The central bank has been getting ... Read More

The monthly comparisons of Total Lots, Bales and Weight for July 2021 compared with the same period last season are: +31.5%, +35.2% and +35.0% respectively. Note that testing volumes for July 2020 last year were somewhat affected by COVID restrictions across Australia when Total Lots, Bale and Weight for July 2020 were:-16.3%, -15.1 and -14.4% respectively when compared with July 2019. AWTA Ltd has tested 18.5... Read More

The UK has lost 83% of its main department stores in the five years since the collapse of the BHS chain. The figure highlights the extent of the upheaval in the High Street as the Covid pandemic sped up changes in shopping habits. The data, compiled by commercial property information firm CoStar Group, also reveals that more than two-thirds of these shops remain unoccupied. Some 237 big stores have yet to be take... Read More