Mark Patterson: Rural Communities Minister on the export deal for wool particles to Japan

The Rural Communities Minister believes a new wool deal will take the sector to a whole new level. 

It's a significant milestone for the country's wool sector, as Wool Source confirms its first commercial export order. 

The Wool Research Organisation company's signed a deal with a Japanese company, for eight tonnes of Kiwi products.  

Minister Mark Patterson told Andrew Dickens its currently constrained by capacity, but it's a big step forward. 

He says there's a very small laboratory and there's plans to scale it up as demand increases. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I've got some more key ingenuity on the show today.

(00:02):
Key company Wool Source has landed its first big export
deal with Japan. They're shipping off eight tons of their
wool particle product. Some people are calling this the holy
Grail for strong wool, and some people are also saying
this will give a farmers a decent boost because we
all know that wool has been struggling so rural communities.
Minister Mark Pattison joins me. Now, goodbording to you, Mark,

(00:23):
Good morning Andrew. What exactly is wool particle?

Speaker 2 (00:28):
It's deconstructed wall fibers. So there's a secret process that's
been two decades in the development out at Lincoln University
and we're finally getting at the commercial stage.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
So you're deconstructed, then you're reconstructed and it comes back tougher.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Well, in this case it's particles, but we can take
it right down to sort of pigment size. So look,
it's a secret process. So I don't actually know, but
but I do know it's a keenly sought and of
very high value, which is cause very much interest to

(01:07):
our funer.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
So far, the first country debate is just Japan and
they're buying eight tons, So why is that is that important?
Is it showing that the innovation is working or has
it been slow on the uptake?

Speaker 2 (01:21):
No, it's more the ability to process that. There is
a very small laboratory plant. So the next phase is
to scale this up as demand comes in. So we're
very much constrained by capacity at the moment. But eight
ton it's a fear lot of wallpowder when you see
it in a storeroom. So yeah, very big step forward.

(01:44):
This is our moonshot moment. This is where we can
take wall to a whole different play in terms of value.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
I love it moonshot moment. Are we going to make
the moon I mean, is this going to work? What
is How will this affect the wall sector? How will
it affect farmers?

Speaker 2 (02:00):
Well, often these kind of innovations are quite niche, but
this has the ability to be quite large in the
sense that we believe it could take a twenty percent
of New Zealand strong wall Club once fully up and
running at a very high price point. So it has
the opportunity or the potential to really move the needle

(02:21):
for our sheep farmers, and.

Speaker 1 (02:22):
They want it to and I thank you so much.
Mark Patterson, who is the rural community's Minister for more
from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live to news talks.
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