The Irish wool sector can be best classified as a trading sector.

The majority of wool is purchased from farms through a network of agents and merchants, then graded and packed before being exported for further processing in other countries.

The main destinations in recent years have been China and Malaysia, but significant volumes are also traded to the UK or via the British Wool Marketing Board.

There is no value-added processing on a significant scale, with tiny volumes undergoing further processing.

A study is currently being carried out by Patricia Casey as part of her enrolment in the MSc in AgInnovation programme at NUI Galway.

Her study has a number of targets, including reviewing the current position of the wool sector in Ireland and identifying if there is potential and, if so, an appetite to enhance the sector.

Calling all farmers

Patricia explains that a significant part of achieving this outcome is speaking with all parties with a vested interest in wool and collating their views.

These have been broken down as follows into three groupings for simplicity of carrying out surveys and targeting particular questions to the right respondent.

Wool producers / sheep farmers – this is collating the views of those who are producing wool and Patricia is asking farmers to devote a few minutes of their time to complete a short survey. The survey can be accessed through the web link https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NCXWNHV or via the social media link https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NQ3TS2S.

Organisations with a vested interest – emails with a link to the survey have been sent to a number of organisations seeking their feedback. If anyone has not received the link and would like to contribute their views to the study, they can email p.casey11@nuigalway.ie.

Wool / sheep champions – Patricia classifies wool or sheep champions as those who are actively engaged and have an interest in the sector. This includes shearers who are pro-active about the sector, businesses handling raw wool or processed wool to make any type of garments. Patricia says she has sent some emails to those she has been able to collate contacts for and, again, is encouraging anyone who has not received a link to the survey but who would like to help to contact her via email at p.casey11@nuigalway.ie.