Primary Wool Co-Operative owns 50% of CP Wool. Despite a global pandemic and an unprecedented year, we’re proud to say the wool brokerage company is currently rising ahead of budget and making smart streamlined moves to get the most for your wool. 

As many of us remember, in March 2020, under Alert Level 4 wool was not considered an essential service. Consequently, the CP Wool network was essentially shut for seven weeks. Additionally, the entire wool pipeline was locked down resulting in eight auction sales being cancelled.

CP Wool relies on wool sales for revenue, subsequently no sales result in no revenue. Like many other NZ businesses, CP Wool was grateful for the Government wage subsidy to help cover the continued expenses during that time. 

After the national NZ lockdown finished and we resumed to regular trading, the global demand for wool fibre continued to be weak as many of the wool trading nations of China, Italy, UK and India are still suffering from the effects of the pandemic.

Over time, wool prices have drifted sideways. Despite subdued prices, CP Wool are repeatedly seeing farmers choosing to clear wool as many don’t want to try and play the global commodity markets.

With all of this in mind,  CP Wool is taking the creative initiative to streamline its network by transitioning from brick and mortar stores to Operating Depots at freight companies in the Whangarei, Gisborne, and Gore local areas.

Primary Wool Co-Operative is also excited about an increasing interest in farmers wanting to make carpets from their own wool. CP Wool and its subsidiary NZ Yarn has completed two custom batches and has a further six orders in the system. Additionally, businesses have been in contact with CP Wool about providing NZ Wool to their brick and mortar locations around the country. 

With this in mind, it’s more important than ever to maintain quality product – a process that starts in the shed. We need to work together to ensure our collective clip is desirable. 

“We are hopeful that 2021 will see some degree of “normality” return to international markets as vaccines are rolled out and lockdowns become a thing of the past.”

See the latest wool prices here. If you would like to connect with a CP Wool rep, you can find their contact information here.