PASSIONATE superfine wool grower Helen Cathles will tell her story to the Chinese consumer in an effort to make her industry sustainable for young families.
“When you’ve got young families involved in the industry, that’s when you’ve got a sustainable industry and we have a future,” Mrs Cathles said.
“So that’s what I’m aiming for.”
She and husband Ian run 3000 superfine Merinos and Angora goats at Wee Jasper, NSW, but once ran as many as 12,000 sheep.
Their farm story will be told to affluent Chinese consumers as part of Australian Wool Innovation’s Gold Woolmark campaign involving a CBN China television luxury lifestyle program.
The Cathles and outgoing Australian Superfine Wool Growers Association (ASWGA) president Kevin Dunn and his wife Margaret, recently returned from a trip to Shanghai earlier this year.
She noticed the Chinese dressed very casual, compared with the Japanese and Koreans, and a man wearing a suit to a wedding might be mistaken for the groom.
“So it showed that within the range of dress in China there is no sense of structure.”
This fitted with AWI’s plans to reach 66 million Chinese consumers through the CBN China program by showing them how they could dress with a greater level of sophistication with wool.
During CBN China filming on her farm this week, Mrs Cathles said she would highlight the environmentally friendly aspects of wool production in Australia, the dedication of growers, the shearing shed atmosphere and the wonderful structure of the fibre.
“We really are a clean nation and we have a natural fibre.
“And there is another side to wool; there is a really high tech side to it, where you’ve got growers, especially superfine growers, that measure all their fleeces.
“It’s showing the care that people go to and the passion they have for the fibre.”
The Cathles have not mulesed their sheep for two years, but have had to make several management changes.
“However, it is your end market and superfine growers have to concentrate on their end market.
“So currently in China at the retail level, mulesing is not the biggest issue – in Europe and the United States it is,” she said.
“So it depends on where your product is going as to whether mulesing or not mulesing is an issue.”
Mrs Cathles said there were markets for wool from all ASWGA members, whether they mulesed their sheep or not.
“But every single wool grower has to look down the track and mulesing is not the only issue that we have to look at – we really have to look at viability.
“I think the viability and sustainability of the superfine wool industry is the most important thing.”
