Drought, fires and, more recently, floods: these are the things wool producers fear.
But that’s just “living on the land”, according to New South Wales merino producer Anthea Sutherland.
What she and husband John were not prepared for was the sudden drop in demand for their farm’s wool when the pandemic prompted people to swap suits for tracksuits while working from home.
The market tumbled: a kilogram of fine merino wool dropped from about $20 to $8, at its lowest.
While prices have rebounded – although not to pre-pandemic levels – the Sutherlands and the wider industry are seeking to diversify the uses for wool to ensure the longevity of the commodity and their way of life.
“We have to look at promoting our product, our fibre,” Sutherland says, speaking to the Guardian from Pooginook, her merino stud near Jerilderie in the state’s Riverina region.
“People aren’t dressing up and wearing suits as much as what they used to.
“We have to let people know that properties of wool are so good at keeping you cool and keeping you warm and you can use wool for activewear.”
Athletic brands like Byron’s Nagnata and Melbourne-based MAAP are part of the solution Sutherland envisages - spinning yarn into functional sport and ‘commuter-wear’ for the next generation.
Australian Wool Innovation chief executive, John Roberts, describes it as one of his focuses for the year ahead.
“We call it ‘commuter wear’ or ‘transit wear’ - it’s a big growth area. People can get to work in those more active ways, but still have the odour management qualities and moisture management qualities that wool provides,” he says.
“They can turn up to work and look good and feel good and be comfortable.”
A recent report by KPMG demographer, Terry Rawnsley found use of public transport had dropped during the pandemic, while walking and cycling jumped.
Rawnsley predicts some of those patterns will stick, in cities like Sydney and Melbourne where long lockdowns and gradual reopening gave workers long enough to set new habits.
“The number of people in active travel has ticked up above where it was pre-coronavirus,” he says.
“Some of the people who would have formerly caught public transport, with concerns about cleanliness, health and being crowded together, have switched to active transport,” he says.
“Behaviours, once they become set, are hard to break.”
But capitalising on the potential growth market isn’t easy – as Nagnata co-founder and designer Laura May Gibbs learned.
It’s taken her years to develop her woollen athletic wear and she’s still refining it, working with producers in China to create technical knits suiting vigorous exercise.
Quality control is crucial, according to Craig Smith, Campaign for Wool New Zealand board member and general manager of woollen activewear company Devold.
In many ways New Zealand has already forged the path for Australian producers, pioneering merino activewear over the past decade with brands including Icebreaker and SmartWool.
Smith says there are lessons Australia can learn from its neighbour.
“Everyone wants to jump on the bandwagon a wee bit with outdoor activewear, but some of our consumers, especially younger ones, have very little knowledge about wool so we have one chance to get the right impression,” he says.
“If you’re going to get into this market, make sure that you’re putting the best ingredients you can in, otherwise we’re going to lose that market share against our synthetic friends. That’s our competition, not other merino products.”
Sutherland hopes the product’s biodegradable properties also get eco-conscious youngsters on board, although the green credentials of wool aren’t guaranteed and largely depend on how it’s produced, which varies.
There’s also an ongoing conversation around the mulesing of sheep to produce ultra-fine merino.
But the industry’s biggest challenge may be getting people to see wool as a hot weather option.
“I wear mine sometimes and not wash them for two or three weeks, wearing them multiple times a week just walking,” Northern Rivers-based Gibbs says.
“It has been an education process for sure but once people put them on.. well, it really is like a second skin feeling and they become addicted. They can’t go back to lycra.”
Dennis Voznesenski, a Rabobank agricultural analyst says the lockdown-induced drop hit the Australian wool export market hard, but activewear has been bucking the overall apparel trend – with recent Trademap data showing US sporting apparel containing wool was 21% above 2019 levels.
Voznesenski predicts fine wool prices will continue to bounce around the $14.50kg mark for the coming year – remaining about 10% under the five-year average.
Sutherland’s hoping a new generation of sustainability-minded consumers can get on board, giving producers another growing chunk of the fashion market.
“The older generation, my generation, know about the qualities of wool but it’s the younger generation that we actually have to show the quality - and that’s where using wool with all the lifestyle, sport and activewear [comes in],” she says.
“It’s about convincing the rest of the world that that’s what our product can do.”
