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Balance payments due to be paid to sheep farmers who supplied their 2017 wool clip to the British Wool Marketing Board (BWMB), known as Ulster Wool in NI, are likely to be lower than last year.
The final BWMB auction of the 2017/18 season takes place on 5 June and this season’s average auction price is currently sitting at 101p/kg, which is 13p/kg behind the 2016/17 average price.
Charges of around 30p/kg are deducted from auction prices by BWMB to cover selling and handling costs. The price schedule for all grades of wool from the 2017 clip will be available in the coming weeks.
BWMB wool sales manager Stephen Spencer said that actual payments to sheep farmers will be dependent on the grade of wool supplied. “The payments to producers on some of the grades will be slightly lower than last year,” he said.
The absence of Chinese buyers in the wool market has been a significant factor in pushing prices down over the past few seasons.
“The annual UK wool supply is around 30m kilos, which is very small on a global scale. It would only take fashions to change slightly in China and suddenly they would come back into the market for our mid-micron crossbred type wool, and you would see prices increase quite quickly,” Spencer said.
Spot price buyers
With clipping of hoggets beginning in earnest this week, merchants who buy wool directly off NI sheep farmers at a flat rate spot price have indicated that it will be a few weeks before prices for the 2018 season are known.
“It will be another three weeks or so before we get an idea of what we are paying.
‘‘We are watching closely what is going on with Chinese buyers. Most merchants have some wool left over in stores from last year, but it is generally lower quality wool that is harder to sell,” said Joe McGlynn from Donegal-based Marley Wools.
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