The New Zealand wool industry is set for a boost after government intervention saw the country’s largest housing provider decide to use wool carpets rather than man-made fibre products.
The publicly owned Kāinga Ora owns more than 70,000 homes and has an annual budget of £1.1bn.
Last year it launched a tender process for carpeting its properties, but restricted it to man-made fibres. The tender was re-opened after outcry from farmers and the agency will now use wool carpet in new social housing from 1 July and in existing homes if the whole home needs recarpeting.
‘Our wool industry is in major freefall, and this move is the parachute we desperately need. This will slow our drop a bit, but, in reality, what we really need now is an updraft to lift wool back up into being the number-one fibre globally,’ says Toby Williams, meat and wool council chair of the Federated Farmers association.
He says the contract has the capability to soak up large volumes of wool, which in turn will help increase prices.
‘Our homegrown wool is an incredible product and it beggared belief that Kāinga Ora weren’t even giving wool the chance to compete. That was a total slap in the face for struggling Kiwi sheep farmers and rural communities, and we made it very clear it was a ridiculous, short-sighted decision,’ he told Farmers Weekly.
‘It’s great they saw sense and allowed wool to have a crack – and even better that a wool provider has won the contract. It just goes to show that when wool is given a fair chance, it comes out on top as a natural, sustainable and renewable alternative to cheap and nasty plastic carpet.
‘We recently launched our SOS: Save Our Sheep campaign to hammer home the message that we need urgent action if we’re to keep our sheep and wool industry from collapsing entirely. Farmers are sick of woolly ideas – they want solid actions like this. It shows that strong leadership from the Government can be a factor in restoring confidence to our embattled wool industry.
‘Using cheap, nasty plastic carpets might save a few bucks in the short-term, but at what longer-term cost to the environment? If Kāinga Ora had picked a fossil fuel-derived synthetic carpet over a sustainable New Zealand-grown woollen product, just because it’s cheaper, it would have been a disaster.’
‘Kāinga Ora realised the wrongs of its ways and stopped that tender and restarted it, allowing wool to apply. The result of the reopening of the tender was that – no surprise to me or you – wool manufacturers turned up with a first-class offer. When they were given that even playing field, they were able to win and they have won that tender,’ says Nicola Willis, New Zealand economic growth minister.
In March, the New Zealand government issued a directive to 130 agencies requiring them to purchase wool products for building construction and refurbishment, wherever practical and appropriate.
‘That’s great news for our wool industry. It’s a common-sense policy that we are proud to have put in place.’
Image: Jorge Royan/www.royan.com.ar/CC BY-SA 3.0
