Agriculture
Wool price soars at first sale of 2016─── SABRINA DEAN 16:56 Thu, 14 Jan 2016
Bloemfontein - Wool growers and traders are ecstatic after the first sale of the year saw a double digit percentage gain from the last sale in December.
OVK/CMW Senior Wool Marketer, Pierre de Lange, says the national wool price indicator closed at R161,61/kg this week, which is 14,3% up from the R143/kg realised at the final sale of 2015.
He says this is also significantly higher than the R107/kg price realised in January last year.
De Lange says the weak Rand and good demand from China are driving prices.
“We were very unsure about what would happen with the first sale, especially with the Chinese market. We didn’t know what was going to happen there because their economy wasn’t very healthy.
“Things look very, very good now and all the Chinese guys are in to buy wool. We all know they are 80% of the wool buyers in the world.”
De Lange says they are feeling very positive about the outlook for the rest of the season.
The OVK/CMW forecast report meanwhile says strong demand is in reaction to the apparent drop in wool production for the clothing sector. Australian wool production for the 2015/16 season has also reportedly decreased by 7%.
The next auction takes place on January 20.
Sabrina Dean/OFM News
Pierre de Lange of OVK/CMW:
