Woolgrowers have mixed feelings about the role of Australian Wool Innovation (AWI) and its current focus, if responses on a recent online poll by The Land are anything to go by.
The survey included multiple choice answers, as well as an open question at the end which allowed respondants to air their thoughts, and has been run in the context of this year's WoolPoll vote, which opens on September 13.
The open response question, meanwhile, was used to provide some useful suggestions, as well as some rather strong grievances.
The question was "what project do you think AWI should focus on?".
One respondant replied with: "AWI needs to focus on outcomes for the entire industry, not just the archaic traditional stud Merino breeding sector, who are the biggest hand break on our industry".
It continued; "The first step would be telling growers what is actually happening in the international market regarding mulesing. It is increasingly becoming less acceptable and hasn't been for a while, if Australian growers were made aware of this fact in a timely manner they would have been better equipped to transition away from mulesing. This is an unforgivable act by the wider AWI board, successive individual directors and management".
Another responder said AWI should "stop pulling the wool over our eyes" claiming most of the levies, regardless of the rate, came from commercial wool growers, not "stuck in the mud" studs.
Other more positive comments included suggestions of promoting wool in both traditional and developing markets in Europe and North America, modern marketing supply lines for all wool grades, enhancing retail image and demand, and the promotion of wool to be used every day such as in clothing, building materials and household items.
Research and development project suggestions included looking into the economics of running Merinos in a mixed enterprise to help spread risk, along with genomics for disease resistance, such as blowfly resistance and non-mulesed production, worm resistance, footrot resistance and improved lamb survival, as well as more genetic research projects.
Shearing also featured, with suggestions that AWI cover costs for learner shearers and assisted with the cost of learner equipment, as well as increased shearer and shed handler training and additional innovation in that space.
Also put forward was the identification of emerging markets to reduce the reliance on China to in turn lessen market volatility.
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In response, AWI's chief executive officer Stuart McCullough said "AWI works for all Australia's woolgrowers".
"We are continuing to work hard for all Australian woolgrowers. But we will continue to do better to improve our stakeholder engagement as well as monitoring and evaluation and we will step up our efforts in that regard," Mr McCullough said.
His comments were made off the back of the latest independent review of performance (see below story) conducted by independent firm, Accenture, who found that while board culture has seen significant improvements since 2019, external perception still lagged.
"The report has shown improvement in stakeholder engagement over the last three years especially through enhanced industry consultation mechanisms via the Woolgrower Industry Consultative Panel (WICP) and Woolgrower Consultation Group (WCG)," Mr McCullough said.
He said a key finding in the report was AWI's marketing activities providing clear gains for the global wool industry.
"Data released by AWI demonstrates the three-year brand partnership with Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli, where we developed a Merino-wool rich uniform and the Woolmark logo displayed on the sail of the yacht, generated an earned media reach of 13.6 billion and an earned media value of $1.9 million," Mr McCullough said.
"Although an independent review of project outcomes is still in progress, initial results have shown that an additional 12 partners for wool product innovation have been identified through this project."
Additionally, AWI's involvement in the 2020 Internatioal Woolmark Prize has produced a 122 per cent year-on-year increase in reach on Woolmark-owned social media, broadcast on channels 7, Nine and 10 and a 71pc year-on-year increase in wholesale value to more than $1 million across 111 stores.
A flow-on from this campaign was the sale of Woolmark-branded products such as race jackets, polo shirts and t-shirts, which are still available through Prada.
AWI's metrics on the Zalando campaign, Europe's leading online platform for fashion and lifestyle, have also shown a return on influencer investment of 167.9pc per dollar invested, while the return on advertising spend was 8.07 Euro for every one Euro spent.
A month-long campaign with Japanese online retailer Zozotown in its 2020-21 winter season also resulted in a 25pc increase in purchases of Merino wool products.
AWI today released its WoolPoll Voter Information Memorandum ahead of the opening of voting on September 13.
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