Wool Exporters Double Promotion Funding

Wool Exporters Double Promotion Funding

Wool exporters have renewed and strengthened their commitment to the Campaign for Wool and other wool promotion projects.

Mr John Dawson, who has just been re-elected as president of the Wool Exporters Council, said that wool exporters are confident that the promotional work done in recent years, especially the project with international architects and now the Campaign for Wool have helped increase consumer knowledge and demand for woollen products.

“Certainly, the decreased supply of wool worldwide has been part of the lift in wool prices but if that was the only factor, then prices would have quickly slipped back as a reaction against that significantly higher cost.

“But that hasn’t happened and the reason is that there is a growing awareness of wool and its natural attributes. This is helping to keep the pressure on the supply and therefore holding wool prices at a very healthy level. There is no doubt whatsoever that the promotional programmes through the International Wool Organisation and the Campaign for Wool that we have helped to fund have already played a part in that and will have a growing effect as the projects continue.”

Mr Dawson said that his exporter members are more than satisfied that the internationally unified and collective promotional programmes that New Zealand participates in with other wool producing and processing countries are effective and are reaching the right target, the consumer.

“These programmes are new but have had an immediate impact. We intend to make sure that they continue to grow and continue to encourage consumers back to wool. For that reason, exporters have agreed to double the funding they put into these programmes.”

Mr Dawson said that the promotion projects are operated through the National Council of New Zealand Wool Interests, the organisation made up of the various wool industry sectors in New Zealand. The major current project is the Campaign for Wool, of which HRH The Prince of Wales is the Patron.

“This project is really only just getting started but already has been amazingly successful,” said Mr Dawson. “It is now being rolled out in more and more of the important consumer nations and there is no reason to think that it will be any less successful there than it has been in the initial markets of the UK, Australia and New Zealand.”

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