Two years ago I sold half a tonne of wool. That is a lot of wool, some white, black, brown and some black and white. The whole lot came to just over £100 and I’m asked why it is so cheap when wool in clothes is so expensive?
There are lots of reasons; firstly, most of the wool (apart from the very best) goes into carpets as it is very hard wearing and if white can be dyed into any colour. If it is black then it can only be black and there is not much call for that in a carpet.
So the colour wool will go for other uses such as niche markets like insulation and fertilizer.
Really good wool will make good money I hear you say, sorry no that is not true. The main reason is because of the washing machine!
I kid you not, as we have got busier we have less time to wash by hand and so the demand for wool has dropped steadily.
As farmers we have made other markets but now we treat wool so it can be washed in the washing machine, wool is now being used again and hence the wool price has come up a small amount. Still not going on holiday with the money but we can always live in hope!
Next time Roll over and die?
