WA Merino wool needs its own brand to capitalise on market potential and to boost grower returns by eliminating a traditional price discount, local wool industry doyen Peter Scanlan has declared.
Recently returned from leading Scanlan Wools' latest 19-day tour of China for 25 WA woolgrowers, Mr Scanlan has already come up with 'CashMerino' as a potential brand name and said his ideas for a WA wool brand were reinforced on the trip.
He believes the average WA Merino wool clip is fine enough, when processed with the latest technology, to rival cashmere goats' wool for softness and next-to-skin comfort - hence the 'Cash' component of his suggested brand name.
On current prices cashmere wool sells for up to nine times what WA Merino wool sold for last week.
Global marketers quoted latest indicative prices of up to US$131.90 ($188.44) a kilogram for Chinese cashmere, US$110.40/kg ($157.72) for Mongolian cashmere and US$97.80/kg ($139.72) for Iranian cashmere.
WA Merino wool traditionally sells at a lesser price than Eastern States' wools - 18, 18.5 and 19 micron wools sold at the Western Wool Centre for up to 87 cents a kilogram clean less than comparable wools at Melbourne and Sydney last week.
But currently it was better wool because of the impact the sustained drought has had on Eastern States' sheep flocks and their wools, Mr Scanlan said.
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