The Country 13/02/25: Chris Russell talks to Jamie Mackay

Our Australian correspondent talks about the lowest wool production in over a century.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
He's there. Ossie correspondent Chris Russell, based out of Sydney,
always comes up with some interesting facts and figures. Let's
start with one of those. Australian wall production, Chris is
forecast to drop to its lowest level since the nineteen
twenty twenty one season, more than a century ago.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
It's staggering, really, and of course, when our population was
about twenty percent of what it is now, I guess,
so you know, it is a big story here. Australia,
of course, has always been said to have ridden on
the sheep's back, and a lot of that relates back
to the nineteen fifties after the Korean War, when war
was bringing in the old money a pound a pound.

(00:42):
And I've still got mates who inherited two or three
rolls royces from their grandfathers who brought them up when
they were making a fortune out of wall in the fifties.
But such is not the case since, and it continues
to decline. I was in a meeting with the head
of AWI and we were talking about the future of
the industry. He's still very optimistic that it has a

(01:04):
great future as a fiber But when you talk about
us dropping another twelve percent in twenty twenty four to
twenty five, so it's going to be less than two
hundred and eighty million kilograms. That hasn't been that low,
as you say, since nineteen twenty twenty one. Now there
are a lot of young people who still really believe
in the industry. I still really believe in the product.
I think, you know, there are a few when would

(01:26):
a plastic coat ever be as good as a woolen one. Never,
But it's all about costs, it's all about size. The
spinners all want something they can manufacture on mass, and
they're just not getting the demand for that more expensive product.
So let's hope it survives. It's not being helped over
by the current government's declaration that by twenty twenty eight

(01:48):
they're going to cut out live sheep exports out of
Wa because the exporters or the live sheep growers over
there are saying that's where most of their cast rage
use and weathers go. They won't have anywhere to get
rid of them. It's too far to transport them all
the way across the east inside, So not a lot
playing in their favor. But there's still the shreds of

(02:09):
optimism amount amount to some of the young growers which
is encouraging them.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
Good on you, Chris. Chris Russell, rapping are our country.