9 Mar 2018

Wool mill calls for origin labelling

From Country Life, 9:30 pm on 9 March 2018

The managing director of the Southern Hemisphere's largest woollen mill wants to see country of origin labelling on all fabric.

Tracy March, of Auckland-based company Inter-Weave, thinks that would encourage customers to ask for locally made product.

The firm produces 150,000 metres of fabric a year, 70 percent of which leaves New Zealand.

Most is used for upholstery and goes to China, Europe, the UK, the USA and to Australia.

In fact if you are sitting on a train in Australia, you might be sitting on fabric woven at Inter-Weave.

March says there is a swing towards sustainable, natural fibres but New Zealanders need encouragement to furnish their homes with wool-covered furniture and to hang woollen curtains.

"New Zealanders ... see wool as a bit itchy and scratchy and 'why would I want wool on my sofa?' - whereas Americans don't feel that way at all.

"So it's a case of re-educating people that wool doesn't have to be the itchy scratchy, only one choice of design and one colour product it used to be many years ago."

Two decades ago, Inter-Weave wove ten different products. Now it produces 600 lines.

A lot of wool, especially finer micron grades, goes to China or sometimes Eastern Europe, March says.

“It’s woven at a minimal cost and then sent back to us. It’s quite upsetting when I see that because I know that we’re right on the doorstep and we’re able to provide exactly the same type of product – in fact probably nicer quality at a better price.”