9 Dec 2010

Growers offered premiums for branded carpet wool

12:56 pm on 9 December 2010

The Wool Partners International (WPI) joint venture is offering farmers its first procurement premium as competition heats up for the limited supply of carpet wool.

It is looking for wool at this week's auctions to fill contracts to two carpet manufacturing partners in Britain.

WPI is offering 70 cents a kilo premium above auction prices for wool that meets the specifications for its Laneve brand.

Chief executive Iain Abercrombie says on recent auction prices, that amounts to a 15 percent margin for growers,

Mr Abercrombie says to get the premium, wool growers also need to be accredited to WPI's integrity programme and pay its market development fee.

Growers supplying Elders Primary Wool with carpet wool under the new Just Shorn brand are also getting a premium of $1.40 a kilo above market rates.

Elders' managing director, Stuart Chapman, says it's getting the wool it needs but acknowledges that supplies are tight.

The International Design Guild in the United States is selling the Just Shorn carpets and rugs in more than 100 of its top end stores there, and says sales are going well.