Wool price to remain high, predicts buyer

Simon Curtis, joint managing director, with his brother Martin, of Curtis Wool Direct, based in Bingley, said he believed a corner had been turned and there would not be any quick return to the rock-bottom prices of the past decade.

He was speaking to the Yorkshire Post after the penultimate sale of the 2009-2010 season, at British Wool Marketing Board headquarters, saw another full clearance of stocks put up for sale and prices firm across the board, to give a "market indicator" – an average price based on a basket of different grades of wool – of 120p a kilo, compared to 70p a year ago and an average of 68p over the 12 months before that.

It means farmers are likely to get cheques averaging around 50p a kilo for their 2009 wool, compared to 34p for 2008. And if the price stays up for the next 12 months, they might even break even on the cost of shearing in 2010. Average production from a sheep is 2.2 kilos and the average cost of a clip is 1.50.

Mr Curtis said prices had been driven up by a number of factors, including farmers getting out of the sheep business because of years of low prices for wool and meat – in Australia, New Zealand and South America as well as the UK. The credit crunch had discouraged traders from keeping stocks as a cushion against price rises, so buyers needed all the wool they could get to meet existing orders.

"The money the growers are getting is coming out of the pockets of businesses like ours," he said.

"But that is the way it goes. I am pleased to see them getting better prices at last. Prices have been unsustainably low, which is one reason the UK clip is down to 30 million kilos, compared to 50 million ten years ago.

"It is not possible to say what the new season prices are going to be in firm figures but I am sure they will remain higher than they have been for a long time. We have moved on to a new level, established around the world."

His family's company was started by his father, who came out of the RAF, married a Yorkshire girl and got into textiles through a degree at Leeds University.

It has since merged with a big Norwegian farmers' co-op and has an arm in New Zealand.

But the Bingley operation's business is buying British wool, scouring it at a big plant on Leeds Road, Bradford – the former Joseph Dawson Cashmere Works – and selling it to 40 countries, for carpet making and cloth.

It expects to buy about 40 per cent of the UK clip.

The board's next and final sale of last year's wool will be on June 16.

CW 22/5/10