NZ wool prices slip as buyers favour South Island wools over Northern offering

Friday 13th May 2016

New Zealand wool prices slipped at yesterday's North Island auction as buyers preferred last week's offering in the South Island.

The coarse crossbred wool indicator dropped 2 percent from last week, reflecting differences in wool between the islands, with the benchmark 39 micron strong wool price slipping to $5.70 per kilogram from $5.85/kg last week, AgriHQ said. The lamb wool indicator sank 3 percent, with 30-micron lamb wool declining to $6.05/kg from $6.45.

"Prices were generally lower than last week’s South Island auction, but higher than the previous North Island auction," said AgriHQ analyst Shaye Lee. "South Island supply generally seems to contain the traits that buyers are in favour of, in terms of colour and quality."

Wool supply volumes are lower at this time of the year, with 5,400 bales offered at the latest auction, well down on the seasonal peak of 19,864 bales on offer at the weekly auctions in late January, and 91 percent of the bales were sold at the latest auction. Some of the wool coming to recent auctions is being marked down by buyers because it is contaminated by vegetable matter such as plant seeds which hinders further processing.

"While low seasonal supply induced prices to generally go up compared with the last North Island auction, wools that were against buyers’ favour were heavily discounted," Lee said. "The sentiment remained for good quality wool with minimal vegetable matter."

Wool is New Zealand's 14th largest commodity export.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

Comments from our readers

No comments yet