AFTER 60 years of growing superfine wool on his New England property, Leo Blanch has built up enough reserves to withstand the current depressed market.
However, as the situation for the wider super and ultrafine industry becomes desperate with the premium for the highest-quality wools continuing to slide, Mr Blanch and his wife Judy are concerned how other producers; particularly those still paying off debt; will cope.
Since the average 17 micron indicator hit a peak above 2300 cents/kilogram almost two years ago to the day, it has been on a constant slide with the gap between superfine wools and broader microns narrowing considerably.
Australian Superfine Wool Growers Association (ASWGA) president Helen Cathles has presented a blueprint for the way forward, saying the industry had been reduced to a "flat bed" with "absolutely no premium for quality anymore".
"We used to have an industry that was a triangle, and at the peak of that triangle was the ultrafine and very high quality superfines," she said.
"It's collapsed. We no longer have what I see as a healthy industry, we just have a commodity.
"Growing superfine in the current scenario is not viable."
Mrs Cathles said the only place extra money could enter the supply chain was through retail, and has called on a new campaign for wool; one which highlighted the attributes of superfine and ultrafine wool.
"The key issue is retail customers do not have an easy way to distinguish between products made from high quality Australian Merino superfine and ultrafine, and products made from lesser quality," she said.
The Wee Jasper woolgrower said while Australian Wool Innovation (AWI) had run good promotional and advertising campaigns, there needed to be a focus on improving technical, objective specifications to distinguish between high and low-quality wool.
Mrs Cathles also said there needed to be a greater understanding of how "technically superior wools" were processed.
"We need to develop ways technically superior wools can be made into new and innovative products to increase the value to the consumer and thus demand," she said.
"And how to translate technically superior wools into the willingness to pay at retail, making sure the campaign has a focus on product innovation and development."
The ASWGA recently commissioned a Superfine Wool Industry Strategic Review, which was released early this year.
"This review clearly shows that we're down, but not out," Mrs Cathles said.
"It also shows just as clearly that we have a great opportunity to work together to put quality Australian superfine and ultrafine back in business and restore a flagship to the wool industry which I think it desperately needs."
While high-end formal menswear has been the traditional destination for the finest Australian Merino wools, AWI product development and commercialisation general manager Jimmy Jackson said the continued casualisation across the globe meant woolgrowers needed to have a drastic rethink.
He said new products needed to be developed, highlighting the attributes of super and ultrafine wool: softness, high-crimp frequency and comfort.
Mr Jackson wants the industry to target womenswear with a particular focus on three areas: lounge-wear and sleepwear, products for first and business class airline and luxury cruise passengers, and further promotion of Merino jersey fabric in high-end womenswear.
"The current situation is not very good and if they carry on doing what they're doing, I can't see it getting any better," Mr Jackson said.
Mr Jackson will work with the ASWGA to develop trials demonstrating how attributes of superfine and ultrafine wool transfer into the final product.
"(Superfine and ultrafine) is the best of the best. But we've got to get it into markets which are growing, which are going to need the attributes of superfine wool and command a high selling price," he said.
Last week Leo and Judy Blanch hosted Ermenegildo Zegna chairman Count Paolo Zegna and a group of international journalists on their 1050-hectare Wollun property, "Westvale", where they run a 6000-strong flock of Merinos.
Mr Blanch hopes the more than 200 journalists which visited woolgrowing operations in the New England will help "lift the profile of the super-fine industry and get it back on track".
"It's not making any money at the moment, we want to get it up where we can all stay in the business and produce that good fibre," he said.
Greg Quinn, a partner with insolvency and advisory firm PPB Advi-sory, said superfine woolgrowers were under threat from a variety of factors: international prices, changes in production, seasonal impacts and the high Australian dollar.
He said there had been a shift in recent years, with fine wool producers adopting dual-purpose strategies and diversifying into meat sheep.
Gerard Stephen runs a flock of up to 24,000 super and ultrafine adult Merinos on his Armidale property, "Warrane", where his family has grown high-quality wool since 1982.
He said the situation had "reached D-Day".
"At the top end of the market we need that $20/kg average, otherwise we're going backwards."
Despite the depressed premium market for superfine wool, Uralla woolgrowers Hugh and Cathie Sutherland decided not to change what they did because their 1318-hectare "Deeargee" property was best suited to superfine wool production.
"The bottom line was there seemed to be very little between the enterprises so I made a conscious decision that I wasn't going to change, I was just going to get better," Mr Sutherland said.
However, the Sutherlands have stopped running wethers on "Deeargee", where they join about 5000 Merino ewes each year to produce a 16.5-micron average clip.
