China visit boosts Australian wool growers' optimism (Australia)

A team of Australian wool growers, who recently paid a visit to China, returned highly impressed with the level of investment the Chinese mills have made in technology, which has raised their optimism about the industry’s future.

 

National Wool Manager for Elders, Andrew Dennis, said the awareness trip provided the Australian wool producers with an opportunity to visit a few processing mills in China and to learn what these mills do with the wool procured from them.

 

The average age of a wool processing mill in China is 20 years, which means majority of the mills are relatively new as per global standards. Moreover, new investment is continuously flowing in the Chinese wool processing industry, Mr. Dennis said.

 

He said that some of the mills the group visited are still investing in new machinery and are upgrading their equipments. This provided a great insight to the Australian growers as they got to see the level of investment involved in the China’s wool industry.

 

It was a good experience for the Australian growers to see the passion that the wool processors in China have for the industry, and how much respect they have for the growers, Mr. Dennis said.

 

Talking about the euro debt crisis, Mr. Dennis said the situation is very delicate and they see no immediate solution. However, domestic wool prices would rebound as soon as European markets attain some stability, he added.