Identifying Merino Wool

October 13, 2006 - Australian Wool Innovation (AWI) this week announced Verification of Australian Merino (VAM), the new procedure to assist retailers worldwide who are interested in validating the Australian Merino content of their products.

VAM involves working with leading retailers, garment manufacturers, knitters, weavers, spinners and topmakers, in collaboration with Australian Wool Testing Authority (AWTA), to ensure the VAM project is simple, practical, yet precise.

The system utilizes the fact that more than 99 percent of Australian Merino wool grown is sold with the aid of test certification provided by AWTA - where the major technical aspects of the wool sold, such as fiber diameter, are quantified.

These test certificates, and the unique certificate numbers for each, allows the measured attributes of top, yarn, fabric and garments to be compared with the wool which is originally grown and sold in Australia.

The testing process is to determine the micron of the wool in the samples; this can then verify the declarations from manufacturers, knitters, the wool processing companies and all involved in the pipeline to create the garment in question.

According to the report, the value of introducing such a system is that it enables Australian wool growers to differentiate their product from that of other producing countries.

"There is still much to be understood about this process," stated Rita Kourlis Samuelson, director of wool marketing for the American Sheep Industry Association.
Reprinted in part from Fibre2Fashion.com

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