Mark Patterson: Associate Agricultural Minister on promoting NZ wool at the Nanjing Woolmarket conference

The Associate Agriculture Minister believes wool is making a comeback and New Zealand could double its exports over the next decade. 

Mark Patterson is in China for the country's largest wool conference, where he'll meet with industry representatives, wool growers, and processors. 

It's our largest trading partner for wool, with $176 million of $446 million in total exports heading there last year. 

Patterson told Mike Hosking farmers can be confident with how the market's moving. 

He says the price is at an eight year high and steadily increasing, and while supply has been declining, demand has been ramping up, which is what's really needed. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Related matters to New Zealand. And they're talking wool in
China at the moment. This is the Nanjing Wool Conference.
We've got a team sent to promote our premium strong wall.
China's our biggest recipient, one hundred and seventy six million
dollars worth a year. Mark Patterson is the Associate Minister
for Agriculture and is in China and is with us.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Morning Morning, Mike.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
The strong wool story. How hard a sell is it
in a place like China at the moment?

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Well Wolves make you a bit of a comeback. It's
coining momentum. Actually, we've got well sitting an eight year
high price wallows and witnessed a you know, or there
was a signing up here yesterday Wolves of New Zealand.
Three major carpet manufacturers over here signing up so that

(00:46):
it's really good new fantastic.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
Is that part of the China story? I mean, I
know it's a big country, but do you get a
sense of where China's at economically? That deal you signed
is that a is that a bullish China or we
just don't know?

Speaker 2 (01:00):
No, I think you know it's a bit subdued over here.
Everyone's saying, but I think this is different. This is
a return to natural fiber is part of a wider trend.
And if we look at say Icebreak, for example, this
is their store in Shanghai yesterday, twenty five stores in China,
fifty by March and one hundred medium term. They saying,

(01:23):
so it is a return to wall, which is great
news for New Zealand.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
Fantastic one hundred and seventy six million dollars worth of
business for the country. What's the potential for that do
you think? O, Well, I think it's going to be
far higher than that, and you know obviously that example
with Icebreak, it's a fourfold increase.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
But we'll get a big wall conference up here weekend
so we'll get a better sense of that. But we're
confident we'll do more than our share of doubling exports
over the next ten years.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
Good when it comes to strong wall things like carpets,
who do we compete against and how much of it's
about just sheer quality? Do you have a quality story
within the strong wall market? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (02:07):
New Zealand produces the premiere strong white walls in the world,
so it's very much quality story for us. We're still
the third biggest ex border in the world. Australia is
the biggest competitive but our walls are superior. So we're
really well positioned to go forward here.

Speaker 1 (02:26):
And what a farmer feel good about that? Because the
strong wall farmer has had a tough time of it.
Should I feel good about what's going on in a
return to natural fibers?

Speaker 2 (02:35):
Yeah, well, you know, the farmers will be the listing
will be saying, you know, the price is still too low,
but you know we're at an eight year high and
steadily climbing, which is a great sign. And that's that's
two parts of that. I mean, the supply has been declining,
but demands definitely ramping up, which is what's really needed exactly.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
All right, Go well Mark Patterson, who's the Associate minist
Rebected Culture. Yes, you're asking yourself. He's in China, Mike,
what time is that? Well, it's the yearly hours of
the morning. I will to be full declaration because he wins,
of course, the Simon wats Award this week for tuning
up in the unusual hours. We did pre record that
earlier this morning, but it was midnight in China and
he stayed up specifically in China for us to do that,

(03:17):
So the Simon Watts Award goes to Mark Patterson for
the week. For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen
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