By Claire Taylor
BRITISH Wool has announced major changes to its grading network, with plans to close four of its 12 depots as part of a major cost-saving effort.
Covid-19 has had a significant detrimental impact on the global wool market and despite the fact that British Wool has cleared the 11million kg of unsold wool it had at the end of April, it insisted that the market remained 'extremely challenging'.
Wool producers have been assured that where grading depots are closed they will be replaced with a new Intermediate Depot in the nearby area, to ensure no extra haulage charges.
Acting chief executive of British Wool, Andrew Hogley, explained: “British Wool has managed to sell wool in decent volumes since August which has allowed us to clear last season’s unsold stock but prices are still severely depressed. The global market faces an oversupply of cross-bred wool, this is mainly from New Zealand but also from other European markets. Although we have seen some more positive signs in recent auctions on some wool types, carpet wools remain under a great deal of pressure."
The contract carpet market which serves hotels, offices, cinemas, restaurants, airports, and cruise ships remains extremely depressed due to the closure of the hospitality trade.
“In order for us to maximise the value of producers' wool it is critical that we re-shape the business in-line with current market conditions," continued Mr Hogley. "Next season we will be reducing the number of grading depots that we operate from 12 to eight. This will result in the closure of our grading depots in Irvine, Porthmadog, Stamford and Liskeard and the wool from these areas will be reallocated to other grading depots within our network."
For in-depth news and views on Scottish agriculture, see this Friday’s issue of The Scottish Farmer or visit www.thescottishfarmer.co.uk
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here