Top wool advocate bales out
The conversion of productive farmland into trees has pretty much annihilated the wool industry.
OPINION: A mate of yours truly has been getting quotes for new carpet in the lounge and, being a good keen man, he was looking first at wool carpet.
"Let's have wool!" he said.
He was duly quoted for "medium-quality wool carpet", $104 per square metre plus install costs.
"The carpet salesman took great delight in telling us that there are 48 ounces of wool per square yard. That's roughly 1.3kg of wool per square metre."
Based on current average crossbred prices of about $3.00/kg, our good keen man reckons the farmer's getting a bit under $4 per square metre for that $104 piece of carpet.
"Looks like wool farmers are being 'fleeced' - that's a hell of a mark up!" he said.
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