6 Dec 2008

Wool prices continue to fall

3:45 pm on 6 December 2008

Wool prices continued to fall at this week's North Island sale in Napier, with the biggest one-day fall in coarse carpet-type wools for some time.

Since the last North Island sale two weeks ago, Wool Services International (WSI) reports that the weighted indicator for the main wool trading currencies weakened by 2.8%, which would normally have had a positive effect on wool prices.

But it says the gloomy world economic situation is overriding the currency influence, and driving prices down.

While a limited offering of hogget fleece bucked the trend and strengthened slightly, the rest of the wool on offer dropped dramatically, between 4% - 9%.

WSI says the price collapse reflects falling worldwide consumer demand, and those effects have not really been properly felt until now.

The main interest at this week's sale came from Australasian carpet mills, China, and India, with limited support from Western Europe and the Middle East.