The new Irish Wool Council is scheduled to hold its inaugural meeting by early February when the body will be formally established. An initial meeting of stakeholders was held last week, with representatives from over 15 different organisations from across the island of Ireland taking part.

Those represented included wool producer co-operatives, farm organisations, wool buyers, merchants and exporters, manufacturers of woollen goods and wool education specialists.

The participants will now establish a working group and plan to reconvene a broader group of stakeholders by early February in order to officially form the Irish Wool Council.

The establishment of an All-Ireland wool council for Irish-grown produce was one of the key findings of the wool feasibility study published earlier this year.

The report states that the council should be:

  • An industry-led steering group to champion an Irish-grown wool brand.
  • Tasked to develop and promote this brand both domestically and internationally.
  • Empowered to create and oversee structures designed to bring disparate groups together for collaboration, innovation and scaling activities.
  • Matthew Carroll of Galway Wool Co-op, who worked on feasibility study, described the stakeholder meetings to date as positive and constructive.