China raises concerns over wool contamination

Clip preparations and contamination in wool bales was raised at a recent meeting of the China Australia Joint Working Group.

AWEX CEO Mark Grave said they took the reports very seriously.

"One of the challenges in contamination is we can only be advised after the event," he said.

"The information we received at that China Australia Working Group meeting was a mixture of contamination of wool packs that had torn, there was some poor preparation that meant there might have been heavy jowls and seedy pieces in wool that you wouldn't have expected it to be and the others were the unexpected or accidental type of contamination such as shirts and so forth that come in.

"This came from one topmaker that happens to be the largest and of course it's always a concern... we want our wool to be able to compete with the best in the world and that requires confidence in the product that buyers and processors are purchasing and receiving.

"To get a contamination, particularly if it's a textile, it can actually spread through the whole batch.

"If it's mechanical, like a tool, that can really have an impact and damage processing equipment.

"Each one of them causes downtime and can ruin a batch of wool."

WoolProducers CEO Jo Hall said woolgrowers must remain vigilant during harvesting to ensure that contaminants, such as clothing, bale hooks and twine do not make it into bales.

"Australia produces the best wool in the world, prepared to the highest qualities and that's thanks to the code of practice and the adherence to it, but there's always some things that get through the supply chain that don't adhere to that code of practice," she said.

"China has raised this issue before but this time round they had provided some evidence about some of the contamination they're finding and it's not just foreign objects in bales, it's also regarding clip preparation as well and mixing of types of wool, which is surely just accidental.

"The Australian wool industry is just issuing a reminder because we want to make sure our reputation remains as the highest quality wool in the world."

Over the years the Australian industry has implemented measures aimed at preventing and managing wool bale contamination, including education and training of growers, harvesting staff and brokers about the importance of maintaining clean clips.

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There is also an opportunity for the Australian Wool Testing Authority to detect contamination in wool samples sent for testing.

"While not a failsafe method of detection, when contamination is found there is a process whereby measures are taken to notify both the owner and classer of the wool and appropriate action can be taken, however the easiest way to avoid contamination is to keep it out in the first place," AWTA managing director Michael Jackson said.

President of the Australian Council of Wool Exporters Josh Lamb said while the industry has a traceability system in place, they were collectively working on enhancements to this system to ensure timelier tracing of product which will be of benefit to the entire supply chain when quality issues arise.

"The sooner we are notified of an issue, the sooner we can take corrective action," he said.

The current labour shortage being experienced in the wool harvesting sector is also playing a significant role in clip preparation issues.

AWI CEO John Roberts said it was currently not only harder to find adequate numbers of staff, but more expensive than ever to employ harvesting labour.

"It has to be understood by our customers that quality costs money but unfortunately, we are not seeing this reflected in the market," he said.

"Industry is committed to ensuring that those workers that we do engage are able to do their jobs in a professional manner, through ongoing training of shearers, wool handlers and wool classers."