STARK reminders of some of the worst price crash volatility last season marked a return to trading at the Western Wool Centre (WWC) last week after the annual three-week winter recess.
More than three quarters of the 3174 fleece bales put up by Nutrien Wool and Westcoast Wool & Livestock were passed in - many lots without a bid - on the first trading day back.
Buyers were simply not interested, with one leaving the sale room part way through to watch sale progress on the electronic data screen in the WWC foyer while relaying information back to head office in the Eastern States by phone.
The 18 and 18.5 micron price guides headed the market collapse, plunging 164 cents and 161c respectively.
The 19.5, 20 and 21 micron guides dropped between 129c and 148c and the least-affected 19 micron price guide shed 115c.
The Western Indicator (WI) lost 123c to finish the first day's trading after the winter recess at 1079c per kilogram clean, a level it has not been near for the past five years.
Techwool Trading buyer Russell Fraser described it as "one of the worst days I can remember since the stockpile sell off (the decade it took to sell AWC's accumulated 4.7 million bales after the reserve price scheme was suspended in February 1991).
"Usually the market will drop in steps of about 50c, but not 150c," Mr Fraser said.
On the second trading day, Dyson Jones, Elders, Wool Agency and AWH learned from the previous day and pulled out more than 1000 bales - 798 of them fleece wool and almost a quarter of the fleece being offered -before the auctions started, but still leaving a large 3774-bale offering overall.
Buyers also showed more interest than the previous day, with plenty of bidding contests, albeit only to low price levels, but the fleece passed-in rate came back to just under 38pc.
It was 19 micron wool's turn to be out of favour and its price guide shed a further 44c, but other falls were contained to a range of 11c to 31c.
The WI finished the week at 1055c/kg, having lost 147c overall.
Across the micron spectrum price falls for the week ranged from 195c (18 micron wool) to 149c (19.5 micron wool).
Similar price falls were recorded at Melbourne and Sydney selling centres, with the benchmark Eastern Market Indicator (EMI) taking its biggest tumble since April, down 128c to 1006c/kg.
But in percentage terms, according to Australian Wool Exchange (AWEX), this was the biggest weekly EMI fall since 1991.
With hindsight, brokers at the WWC partly blamed the poor sales result on the large offering - a total of 8187 bales were put up on the basis the wool market had been shut down for three weeks and there might be some pent-up demand on its return.
But this was almost twice what has been regularly put up at the WWC during the global COVID-19 pandemic so far and pent-up demand simply was not there.
Privately, buyers and brokers at the WWC conceded demand for wool from China is stagnant and likely to remain that way until the pandemic disappears and consumer confidence returns.
But they were adamant consumer confidence and demand for wool will return after the COVID-19 pandemic disappears, it is simply a matter of when.
If last season's trading is any guide, there is more price pain coming for woolgrowers, possibly this week despite the offering being slashed to 5496 bales and WWC selling compressed into one day.
On week six - the week just gone - last year, the WI fell 134c and micron prices dropped between 176c and 180c, albeit to levels more than 700c above last week's.
On week seven - this week - last year the WI fell a further 162c and the price fall range was 159c-212c and that was obviously without any COVID-19 influence on the market.
Brokers are hoping history does not repeat itself this week.
While the volatile COVID-19 impacted wool market has seen significant recent personnel changes on the broking side, which continues to be reported in Farm Weekly, there has also been a change on the buyer side.
Steve Noa, a long-time wool buyer at the WWC for Scanlan Wools, has parted ways with that company and is now buying for Endeavour Wool.
Created in 2017 and already one of Australia's top wool exporters, Endeavour Wool has until now concentrated its buying mainly at the Melbourne and Sydney wool selling centres.
