Wool Market Turns Down

After a booming start to the year, wool markets have finished lower for the second week in a row with the Eastern Market Indicator finished down 10 cents at 916 cents Australian.

Despite the fall, wool broker Robert Ellis says the commodity is in a better position than last year.

"If you look at some of the indicators year-on-year, 20 to 22 micron wools are still over 200 cents ahead of where they were on the same period last year," he said. "23 and 24 micron wools are 180 cents better than last year. Although it is sort of up and down, growers who have sold their wool in the same period over the last couple of years should still be doing better then what they were 12 months ago."

Meanwhile, low merino numbers across Australia are resulting in bigger offerings of crossbred wool at weekly sales around the country.

Greg Andrews, from wool agency Schute Bell, says given Australia's previous high merino flock numbers, this situation is unprecedented. With the fall in the indicative price of wool to 916 Australian cents per kilogram clean, agents are watching the market's reaction closely.

"I think when we analyze this season, we'll see the merino production has fallen dramatically," said Andrews. "We're seeing situations where crossbred catalogs are bigger than what the merino catalogs are. Not only do we have a combination of actual numbers down but it will be the mix, so that will be very interesting."

Reprinted from ABC Rural Australia