Ulster Wool sees a healthy price rise

Ulster Wool has announced its first sustained price recovery since the pandemic, with a general rise of 20 percent across recent auctions.

Sold globally across several different markets and products, demand is growing across the world, helped by the addition of three new buyers of scale at Ulster Wool partners, British Wool auctions.

Graham Clark, Director of Marketing, explains: “Over the past few months we have seen a healthy improvement in both demand and prices at our auctions. Generally, prices have increased by 20 percent with some of the more sought-after types gaining 15p to 20p per kilo.  Our auctions are more competitive than they have been in years with several new buyers entering the fray over the last couple of years. This, along with our promotional work, has had a positive impact on prices and means there is now genuine competition on all wool types.”

Over the past 12 months, Ulster Wool partners British Wool has further strengthened its brand licensing scheme with an additional 44 brands coming on board. Now, the organisation works with 130 brands across the globe which all use high proportions of British and Northern Ireland wool in their products, further helping to drive new demand.

“Retail sales and consumer confidence very much remain an issue in the UK, we have seen improvements across other markets such as contract carpet plus good volume coming out of China,” explains Graham. “Although we are still some way off where we need to be, these gains are very encouraging, and will help support member returns this year.  We hope to see this trend continue into 2024.”

Ulster Wool depot on Co Antrim remains open, and farmers who have wool on-farm are urged to deliver by the end of March. Please contact the depot on 028 9446 2131 – [email protected]