Jamie Mackay: The Country host on Kāinga Ora reversing its decision on wool carpets

Kāinga Ora has announced it will allow wool carpet providers the chance to tender for supply of carpet and underlay in its homes.

The agency has spent the last few years using nylon carpets - citing durability and cheaper prices. 

The Country's Jamie Mackay explains further.

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
He's got a Jamie mckaie hosted the Country Jamie Good Evening.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Good Ryan, are you turn?

Speaker 1 (00:05):
This is good news a U turn from Cayenger Order
on the question of wool carpets and state houses.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Yeah, they previously didn't give the wall carpet a chance
when it came to the tenders, but a bit of pressure,
of a bit of political pressure from a number of
groups Federated Farmers, Campaign for Wall etc. Has made them
reconsider their tender process and they're going to let wall
carpets enter the tender process. And Toby Williams, who's the

(00:35):
meeting WAOL chair for Federated Farmers, said great news. And
it's up to the wall carpet providers to make sure
their proposals are competitive. He just highlighted some of the
reasons why wolve's better than synthetics, insulation and warmth. It's
moisture working, it's a natural fire retardant, it's hyper allergenic
and better for those with asthma. And this is a

(00:56):
considerable tender process. I guess is looking at supplying full
floor coverings for twenty six hundred and fifty new homes
in three thousand renovations, so good news there Wall gets
to go and Walls on a bit of a move
at the moment.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
Ryan, Yes, the price for strong wool is up again,
on the up again.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
Yeah it is, although one of the I think the
North Island sale might have dipped a wi bit today.
But basically crossbread fleece prices are at an eight year
high that you need to put this into perspective. Like
in the nineteen eighties, Wall was getting five bucks a kilo.
These days it might be three or four bucks a kilo.
I think Walls of New Zealand actually came out with

(01:37):
the contract for growers at five which is pretty competitive.
But it's not enough Ryan to stop a lot of
farmers getting into these new breeds of sheep, either the
self shedding sheep ie they just shared their own wall
you don't have to share them, or ones sheep that
don't have any wool at all. In fact, they've got
fine hair like a goat. And it's interesting that some

(02:00):
of the country's leading sheep breeders and I'll throw one
at you now, Derek Daniel, who's I guess got one
of the biggest sheep breeding operations in New Zealand based
out of the wire wrapper he's been selling his sheep.
He calls them nodies and as they said, they grow
here like a deer or a horse rather than a sheep.

(02:21):
And he quite rightly says that yes, the price of
strong wool is going up, but effectively it needs to
be at about ten dollars per kilogram so that farmers
can make reasonable money out of it, because until recently
Ryan farmers the cost of sharing outweighed what they got
for their fleece. He's an example of how much enthusiasm
there is for the self shedding or sheep with no

(02:44):
wool at all. Recent sale in Southland, twenty four and
a half grand was paid for an ex Lana Wiltshire
cross ram. Second highest price was seven and a half
thousand dollars. And here's the kicker. It was paid for
by an old mate of miner, used to be a
gun sharer. Sure his way shared his way into a farm.
He says he's too old to share his own sheep now,

(03:05):
and his daughter, who's the world record holder, Megan White
ed he said she's too busy sharing other people's sheep
to share his, so that's why he's going into them.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
Everyone's becoming a newdist when it comes to sheep. Thank you,
Thank you very much that Jamie. Lovely to have you
on as always, Jamie mckaye, host of the Country. Here
on News Talk SEDB for.

Speaker 2 (03:24):
More from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
Listen live to News Talk said Be from four pm weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.