Strong clearances at British Wool Marketing Board (BWMB) auctions are continuing and the hope is this increased demand can be maintained throughout the 2013 selling season, BWMB South Wales Board member Gethin Havard will tell farmers attending this year’s Royal Welsh Winter Fair, Builth on Monday 2nd and Tuesday 3rd December.

 

An increasing level of confidence in the economic outlook across both Europe and the rest of the world is having a positive impact on wool prices. The latter half of the 2012 selling season and the opening sales of the current selling season showed the improvement in prices was being sustained.

 

Mr Havard said, "Demand was so strong in the closing half of last season that we sold virtually every kilo of wool which was hugely important as we headed into a new selling season. With high clearance rates and prices more than a third up on the same time last year it’s also encouraging to see the volume of wool sold to date significantly higher than at the same time last year."

 

"Demand for British wool has traditionally been largely driven by the carpet market and an upturn in the housing market is helping increase demand, but the strong demand from the market in China is also having an impact on the interest and the demand shown in our product," he added.

 

"Thanks to BWMB's competitive auction system all producers marketing their wool through BWMB would benefit from these price increases’’ Mr Havard said and encouraged visitors to the Winter Fair to visit the BWMB on their stand in the Glamorgan Hall to find out more about the Board’s activities and enjoy some light refreshments.