Wools of New Zealand is attributing greater demand for wool carpets to an increasing desire for sustainable flooring options.
A 50 per cent rise in wool sales through Wools of New Zealand's retailers meant wool's share of the carpet market had grown by more than 350,000 kilograms, chief executive John McWhirter said. Last year, WNZ partnered with Flooring Xtra and other independent retailers to launch wool carpets to the market.
Flooring Xtra chief executive Tony TeAu said wool-based flooring now accounted for a "significant" part of the company's sales revenue - "and we couldn't be happier".
"In the last six months, we have seen consumers consistently walking into our stores asking specifically for carpets made from wool," he said.
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McWhirter said additional independent and retail chains would be welcomed by Wools of NZ next month.
"The feedback from retailers we are getting is that consumers are seeking sustainable, renewable and biodegradable carpet made from wool grown right here in New Zealand. Wool's carbon footprint, which is lower than synthetic, is increasingly in step with consumer expectations."
One of the key barriers to increasing sales of wool carpets in the past had been affordability.
Wools of NZ carpet was priced competitively compared with synthetic carpets, meaning customers had a genuine choice between a synthetic product or a natural one direct from Wools of NZ's farmer-growers, he said.
The price of wool had begun to increase in line with the increase in carpet sales, McWhirter said.
In 2020, listed carpet-maker Cavalier announced it was ditching synthetics in favour of wool and other natural fibres, citing "negative impacts on people's health and the planet".
ANZ's latest Agri Focus report said coarse wool prices had improved a little but the industry still had a long way to go before the net returns from coarse wool would be on the right side of farmers' ledgers.
Shearing costs exceeded the returns most farmers were making from their wool and that deficit would only grow as record-low unemployment contributed to higher wages and enticed shearers into alternate careers, it said.
Positively, large stocks of wool that had built up both in New Zealand and Australia and in-markets had been cleared so the market for all grades of wool was slightly better positioned.
The recent outbreak of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 in China was likely to ease demand from there in the very near term.
While Russia's invasion of Ukraine was very unlikely to spark demand for wool like the Korean War did in the 1950s, high oil prices pushed up the cost of synthetic fibres, which would help reduce the price differential between wool and synthetic carpets, it said.
