Debate about the controversial practice of mulesing has reignited with the South African wool industry fearful Australia’s lack of progress to phase out mulesing was threatening the global reputation of wool.
Frustrated with slow progress addressing concerns about animal cruelty in wool production, the official representative body of the South African wool industry, Cape Wools chief executive Louis De Beer said Australia’s failure to cease mulesing was threatening the future viability of the industry.
“Consumers are telling us that they are concerned with the procedure which means we have to be concerned about it and find a collective solution – there is no point in being arrogant about it,” Mr De Beer said.
“The people on the frontline dealing with consumers on a daily basis would like things sped up and see more action (from the Australian industry).
“We have to be sympathetic to the consumers concerns and we have to understand that cash is king and they are buying our product.”
Mulesing is the practice of surgically removing skin surrounding a sheep's tail to prevent flystrike.
“It is a very difficult debate to handle because of the gruesome nature of it, but the only thing more gruesome than mulesing is a sheep that is being eaten by blowfly,” he said.
“It is a complicated issue but there are ways and means of minimising it and at best there has to be a uniformed sympathy towards the consumer and their concern.”
Mr De Beer believed Australian Merino wool’s dominant position in the luxury fibre market was being impacted by other countries that do not have the issue of mulesing hanging over its clip.
He said while buyers had alternative market options to purchase non-mulesed status wool from, including New Zealand, South America and South Africa, consumers often could not differentiate.
“Consumers are not concerned about different nations, they are concerned about a producer base and that producer base is across the entire world – Uruguay, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand - it is of no concern to them,” he said.
“(South Africa) can’t stand back and say we are so fantastic we don’t mules because as an industry it is out there and we need to react.
“… with video footage and everyone with a cell phone now a reporter, it is something that we cannot hide and unfortunately it is really detrimental to the image to the product and our brand.”
Australian Wool Exchange reported 53.1 per cent of the wool sold at auction is declared through the National Wool Declaration forms – of those growers who use NWD, 21pc declare their status as using pain relief, 20pc mulesed and 9pc non-mulesed.
Mr De Beer said Australia’s position on mulesing was a global problem.
“We have sympathy for the conditions the Australian grower deals with, we understand their genetics are in the process of changing and we understand most of the industry are in the process of moving away from the mules operation, but we are concerned about the impact it has at consumer level on the perception of wool,” he said.
“There is not a solution right now, it will be with us for a while to come and that’s the harsh reality.”
