WoolProducers Australia receives $800k grant for wool export diversification

WoolProducers Australia has received an $800,000 Agricultural Trade and Market Access Cooperation (ATMAC) grant to develop a roadmap for expanding and diversifying the export markets of Australian wool. 

Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries, and Forestry Murray Watt explained that the grant funding would empower the wool industry to explore strategies for expanding into new markets while mitigating trade risks arising from tariff and non-tariff barriers, including the potential impact of emergency animal disease outbreaks such as foot and mouth disease. 

“Wool requires dedicated early-stage processing before it can enter more generic textile manufacturing processes, but Australia’s limited domestic processing capabilities leaves our wool producers reliant on offshore early-stage processing,” Minister Watt said 

“Last year, WoolProducers determined that onshore wool processing would not only be feasible, but that it would enable the wool industry to mitigate the trade risks, generate nearly 600 jobs in regional Australia and increase GDP by $1.8 billion.” 

Minister Watt stated that the grant would facilitate the second phase of the project, enabling the industry to create a roadmap for domestic and diversified early-stage processing and, as a result, reap substantial economic benefits while also identifying opportunities for risk mitigation. 

According to WoolProducers General Manager Adam Dawes, the grant would facilitate the implementation of recommendations made in the first phase of the “Ensuring a sustainable future for Australia’s wool supply chain” project and devise strategies to promote market expansion and diversification for Australian wool. 

“This next phase of work will inform the ‘what’, ‘where’ and ‘how’, which will deliver a clear roadmap and finalise our investigations in this area on behalf of Australian woolgrowers,” Dawes said. 

“The work of this project of focused on supply chain adjustments to mitigate risks at national industry and Australian economy level. Such work is generally out of the scope of existing commercial and industry-funded market research investments.” 

Dawes stated that the ultimate objective of the project would be to mitigate trade risks, including those caused by significant animal disease outbreaks, while also stimulating a diversified and expanded demand for Australian wool. 

The grant will enable WoolProducers to implement the suggestions from a report created during the ATMAC program in November 2022, which explored the practicality of performing early-stage wool processing in Australia and diverse offshore locations, thereby expanding the range of markets for Australian wool exports. 

In addition, the grant will allow for the creation of pre-export value-added offerings from greasy wool to attract new and established markets.