The Country 13/03/26: Rachel Shearer talks to Jamie Mackay

PGG Wrightson’s general manager of wool, on the continued renaissance for strong wool.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Want of a show. Beautiful day, great part of the country.
This she was in mastered in last Friday. I was
I mastered on last Friday and we were ships in
the night. Rachel Sharer, which is a great name for
the head of Wall for PGG rights. And I know
you guys are major sponsors of the Golden Shares. You
do the national Sharing circuit. How good was the Golden

(00:22):
Shares And of course the World Championships.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Oh, what an outstanding event. They play such a role,
such a crucial role in the quality of Wall going
out of New Zealand. And these guys and girls, what athletes.
It was phenomenal. And the fact that Jack Fagan stood
up in the vet ned PGG rights and sharing circuit
was outstanding. I know you had his dad on the show.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
Oh yeah, well, sir David was on the show. But
Jack is such a good ambassador for sharing. He's such
an eloquent young man. He's fluent in about three languaiche
is a very intellectual sort of guy, thinks deeply about
all sorts of things other than sharing. But he got
he didn't quite make the open finals for the Golden Shares,

(01:04):
but but he did win that one and he is
the best speed sharer in the country.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
Absolutely, and we're incredibly proud of him and we're looking
forward to giving him his well deserved Santa Fe sometime soon.

Speaker 3 (01:16):
So he gets it for a year, does he who
had it before?

Speaker 2 (01:20):
Nathan Stratford and part has also had it.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
Oh well, Nathan Stratford's a great Southland. Now we've had
another wall sale this week. We have ninety eight percent
clearance South Island Strong Wall Indicator up three cents, and
I know we've got a long way to go, but
Wall is suddenly back on the radar because it's worth something.
I was worried a year or two ago that strong

(01:43):
Wall would disappear off the face of the earth and
we'd all go self shedding sheep and that would be
the end of our wall. That would be well, it
would be a travestick because it's a wonderful product and
we all figured it was going to come right at
some stage. How is Wall affected by what's happening in
the middle, least at the moment? And I say that
because we know there's a correlation, for instance, between whole

(02:05):
milk powder and oil price. What about if oil price
is going up. That must make synthetics more expensive. Surely
that plays into the hand of a natural product like wall.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
It sure does, although we also have to take in
consideration the shipping lines and the lake. But you're absolutely right,
and what our GM of export is across in the
European markets at the moment, and a common theme coming
through from him is there's just a real concern about
the supply going forward. Finally, people are waking up to
the lower supply numbers coming forward. But also that quality
remains incredibly important. And that's back to the girls and

(02:37):
guys at the Golden Shears. They play such an important
role in the wallsheads for the quality of New Zealand wall.

Speaker 1 (02:42):
So are we getting exporters who are being caught short
on contracts?

Speaker 3 (02:47):
Is that what's driving the market a bit at the moment,
a little bit.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
Although at the moment we are seeing that prices have
leveled off. I guess where supply where demand currently is.
So we're in that prices are plateaued for a bit,
but that's quite typical for this time of the year
as the starts to come off. Up until now, quality
has been incredibly good and good production levels. We're looking
forward to heading into the you know, into the winter period.
But yeah, exporters are currently got have filled their books predominantly.

(03:14):
That's why you're seeing the prices plateau.

Speaker 3 (03:15):
At the moment. What else do we need to talk about?

Speaker 2 (03:18):
Look, we can't, we can't go away from the fact
that five dollars year around that five dollars fifty clean mark.
At the moment, we're nearly a dollar fifty two dollars
up on where we were the same time last year.
So you know, we're talking to growers, and we're talking
to growlers here at the Wanaka Show who are starting
to say it's no longer reliability on their balance sheet.
Of music to many sheep farmers is because at the

(03:39):
end of the day, I'm incredibly passionate that we need
to keep New Zealand farmers in sheep. They play such
an important part of our ecosystem. They play such an
important role in the New Zealand farming landscape, you know.

Speaker 3 (03:51):
And the environmental footprinted less than cattle.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
One hundred percent, And it's not just a good product,
but it's actually good for New Zealand environment ability, sustainable nature.

Speaker 3 (04:01):
Of our farms.

Speaker 1 (04:01):
All right, Rachel, great, great, to catch you. Keep up
a good work there at p GG Rights and Wiland.
Apologies for last for last Friday. We we were ships
on the night