Weekly Market Wrap
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With Brian Vagg, Melbourne
April 18, 2008
Market dips
THE wool market finished 1.4 per cent lower, on average, at sales in all regions this week.
The Eastern Market Indicator (EMI) fell 19 cents per kilogram, ending the week at 938c/kg.
In a two-day sale in Sydney and Melbourne, the EMI fell 6c/kg on Wednesday and 13c/kg on Thursday.
A total 52,435 bales were offered, of which 20.7pc were passed in. Re-offered bales comprised 16.6pc of this week's offering.
It was a generally easier market this week that was also influenced by the appreciation in the US exchange rate.
Average AWEX Micron Price Guides (MPGs) were down by 10c/kg for 17.5 microns, by 16c/kg for 18 microns, by 7c/kg for 18.5 microns, by 19c/kg for 19 microns and by 15c/kg for 19.5 microns. The 20 micron wool average MPG was down by 25c/kg clean, 21 microns by 12c/kg, 22 microns by 4c/kg, 23 microns by 4c/kg, and 24 microns by 10c/kg.
Merino skirtings followed much of the fleece pattern, with the better styled wools least affected. Oddments continued to ease, with the Merino Cardings Indicator down by a further 32c/kg. Crossbred wool average MPGs were down by 1 to 2 c/kg.
Buyers for China were dominant and there was a strong presence of buying for Europe as well.
Sales will be held in Sydney, Melbourne and Fremantle next week, with 51,625 bales rostered to go under the hammer.
IWTO Congress, Beijing
A total of almost 300 delegates from 23 countries, including 93 from China and 63 from Australia, attended this week's IWTO Congress.
The key issues were mulesing, the AWI marketing and promotion work, market intelligence and environmental issues.
Mulesing
Two presentations were given in the Environment & Animal Welfare Committee. The first was by Don Hamblin, who gave an update on behalf of the Taskforce, and the second by Dr Meredith Sheil, who described the role of pain relief products in mulesing and in other animal husbandry practices.
The issues which gained greatest attention (and caused greatest controversy) were the use of pain relief products and management of the issues with Swedish television and retailers earlier this year.
The European Members of IWTO were critical of management of the Swedish issues and appeared to believe that the Taskforce and AWI did not support the use of pain relief products. On the other hand, the Taskforce and AWI believed that the IWTO Members did not recognise that retailer concerns had been managed quite successfully since 2004 and that they supported the use of pain relief products in conjunction with the use of other technologies as they become available.
After much public and private discussion, a similarity of positions occurred with IWTO, AWI and the Taskforce supporting the use pain relief products and the phasing out of mulesing as soon as possible.
Potential for wider use of pain relief products
TriSolfen, the pain relief product currently in use is applied as a spray after mulesing.
Dr Sheil reported that research on the use of pain killers prior to mulesing (or other procedures such as castration and tail docking) is under way at Sydney University and that good progress is being made.
This is most encouraging, as pain management issues and farming practices will not stop when the mulesing issues are resolved.
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