Wool Vote Disappoints But Paves The Way For Unity

Wool Vote Disappoints But Paves The Way For Unity

Wool exporters are disappointed but not surprised that farmers have rejected Meat and Wool New Zealand’s wool levy proposals.

But they see the veto as a golden opportunity to re-unite the wool industry and collectively work together to ensure wool growers get equitable returns. Many blame MWNZ for being the major cause of current industry division.

“The “no” vote was a clear statement that MWNZ did not have a woolgrower mandate to tinker in the commercial parts of the industry and spend levy money on speculative wool ventures,” Wool Exporters Council executive manager, Mr Nick Nicholson said.

“MWNZ was becoming increasingly involved in activities that were way beyond what its role should be and in areas it knew nothing about when it should have stuck to its knitting.

“The ‘farmer good’ activities such as research & development, shearer and woolhandler training, monitor farms and similar programmes have always been valued by farmers and the wider wool industry.

“If farmers had been given the opportunity to vote on the activities they wanted to fund, rather than being confronted with an all or nothing proposal, I am sure that a levy for the basics would have flown through.”

“The wool levy proposal provided for more than 50 percent of woolgrower levies to be spent on ill-defined “market development” and MWNZ chairman Mike Peterson had been quoted in the media saying over the first two years of a new levy he would give $5 million to Wool Partners International to fund the Wool Industry Network activities.

“Wool growers have been down that track before and have seen countless millions of levy dollars squandered in this way. I think that they have decided that they have been bitten pretty hard in the past and weren’t prepared to allow history to repeat itself.”

ENDS

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