Brokers fire up over AWI chairman's WoolQ comments

It comes despite AWI admitting that the selling component of the controversial platform, which repeatedly fell short of operating targets, has been "parked" indefinitely, with no plans to reactivate it.

An article printed in the Australian Superfine Wool Growers Association's annual report entitled Interview with Jock Laurie, included a comment that the "reported industry data hub initiative is basically WoolQ".

"Historically WoolQ was there but brokers would not supply data to it," it read.

Both the National Council of Wool Selling Brokers and the Inland Woolbrokers Association have sent letters to the AWI board slamming the comments and seeking to distance the collaborative Australian traceability hub from WoolQ.

NCWSBA president Rowan Woods wrote that the comments were "out of touch" and "may have singlehandedly undone this good will" of industry bodies working together on a traceability hub initiative.

Mr Woods said he was stunned and aghast at the comments as they felt industry bodies, including AWI, had been pulling together well on the traceability hub and did not want it associated with WoolQ.

"The olive branch from our point of view was to throw it out to AWI through CEO John Roberts that they had some of these components we need, so all is not lost on what growers have spent on what we would regard as the failed WoolQ experiment, why don't we see if we can utilise some of that?" he said.

"We've always been led to believe that WoolQ is parked, finished, never to return and we can start again."

In his letter Inland Woolbrokers Association chairman Mark Bazeley called for AWI to clarify whether the "erroneous and provocative statements" were Mr Laurie's personal views or represented the views of the board.

Mr Bazeley said it was curious that this issue had come up so close to the board election, but brokers generally agreed WoolQ had missed the mark and the traceability hub should not be linked with it.

"As a seller, I do what's requested by our grower clients, asking where they want to list their wool ... there were not a lot of people who ticked the box for WoolQ, that's what it amounted to," he said.

As of October 2022, WoolQ had comprised 23 projects, with a total expenditure of $7.5 million.

According to the Australian National Audit Office's report released in June, there was "no overarching risk assessment or management plan for delivery of WoolQ".

The report also revealed that a report commissioned by AWI into the ownership, operation and liquidity of WoolQ in 2019 noted that many potential investors were conflicted and that it was "unlikely other entities would [be] interested in taking a stake in WoolQ prior to it demonstrating take up unless the intention was to frustrate its development".

The report, produced by Port Jackson Partners, added that new ownership was unlikely to address impediments to uptake.

Despite that, in September 2021 Mr Laurie told a webinar that AWI was looking to commercialise the selling component of WoolQ.

In January 2023, the Australian Council of Wool Exporters and Processors, AWEX, the National Council of Wool Selling Brokers of Australia, the Australian Wool Testing Authority and AWI announced they would be collaborating on traceability.

An AWI spokesperson said part of that was ensuring the industry leverages existing assets rather than building new ones.

"This includes utilising AWEX WoolClip e-speci and E-bale functions, AWTA test data and PIC data and some of the traceability components of WoolQ," they said.

"As part of this industry collaboration and in response to industry feedback AWI will provide WoolQ code and functions that relate to traceability.

"The selling component of WoolQ has been parked and will not be re-activated unless industry demand and support for such services changes."

The AWI spokesperson said the industry hub would give woolgrowers, wool brokers and exporters a single source of permissioned wool information along the entire supply chain and and assist in facilitating a more seamless integration with integrity schemes.

"AWI believes the hub will prove hugely valuable for the Australian wool industry given the increasing customer focus on the provenance and traceability of fibre," they said.

AWI would not provide a response to the brokers' letters, with a spokesperson saying the board had not had a chance to discuss the matter yet.

Meanwhile the WoolQ subsidiary of AWI was quietly renamed Woolmark Source in April this year.

"The WoolQ platform was not rebranded; however the subsidiary was renamed Woolmark Source to better align with our broader traceability endeavours that we hope to deliver to our global woolmark licensees and make a clear distinction between the previous WoolQ strategy and the new strategy now focused on supporting the Australian Wool Traceability Hub concept," an AWI spokesperson said.

Australian Council of Wool Exporters and Processors president Josh Lamb said AWI as an organisation appeared to have moved on from WoolQ, with Mr Laurie's comments "a long way behind the train".

"The only link between WoolQ and the wool traceability hub is the use of some the technology that was used to build WoolQ," he said.

"Although there's been a lot of money spent on it, it shouldn't be wasted... if we can salvage some of that technology to build the traceability hub we'd be silly not to, but that is the only link between the two.

"As far as functionality goes, they will be completely separate platforms."