October 1, 2025 • 7 mins
Our Australian correspondent on wool and beef prices on the rise, and could shearing be an Olympic sport?
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
On the country.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
It is that time where we head across the ditch,
across the Tasman and catch up with our wonderful Australian
corresponded Chris Russell's bit of a roady down to woggle Woggle.
We might talk about that at the end, but right now,
Chris wool prices enjoy a meteoric rise over the last
ten weeks. What's behind that?
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Well, Hamish, this has snuck up on us a bit
the AFO long time. You know, we used to talk
every week about walp price and report on and we
sort of got bored with it. We've always sat around
the eleven hundred cents of kilo, nothing much happening.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Everyone's dorm and glue.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
But in the last ten weeks we've seen the longest
run of price rises in war on the Least Eastern
Market Indicator, which is what we use as a guideline
since nineteen eighty seven.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
That's a long time ago.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
And in the last it's gone up four dollars a kilo,
and it's gone up a dollar akilo just in the
last week. So I thought, well, I've better have a
bit of a look at you know, what's driving this all?
Of a sudden, and there's the old Chinese story of
as usual, that's where seventy percent of our wall goes.
And in particular, the Chinese government is looking to replace uniforms. Now,
(01:08):
it's interesting that if you look back to the nineteen
fifties when wool was selling for a pound a pound,
which in today's money works out for I think it
round about thirty two dollars a kilo, and that was
also driven by renewal of all the uniforms for the
new uniforms for the Chinese army in those days. So
they're looking to replace the uniforms, which is that's creating demand.
(01:31):
There's also a dramatic shortage of all of course, a
lot of people gone out of wool producing sheep more
into the lambs because that's where the money's been, and
so they're having to compete for the wall. So the
haggling that used to occur at the ockins, that's not
happening at the moment, and we're seeing them more or
less paying whatever they need to pay to get hold.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Of this wool.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
And so everyone is pretty excited about where that might go.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
And I went.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
To a talk by the head of a Wi the
other day, and he's always been optimistic that wool was
going to make a comeback because we want to get
rid of all the microplastics and all the other the
sort of nasties out of our clothing. And it looks
like he's been proven right because there's certainly some money
in into the moment and there's no sign of looking
like that price rose is going to stop homish yep.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
And if it's driven by that demand on that scale
from China, I think you're one hundred percent onto it.
Chris beef to keep rising over there for two years
prediction of by thirty five percent.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Yes, well, you know, we're in the case of at
the moment we're a bit short of beef in the South,
and there's lots of beef in the in the North.
But it's been interesting to see where that market's likely
to go. And I was reading some forecasts by some
of the ex so called experts.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Here and they're saying.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
That we could see up to thirty to thirty five percent.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Height in prices over the next couple of years.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
You know, due to the expansion in demand, particularly for
our meat and particularly from America.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
We've got a new free trade agreement now with the
United Arab.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Emirates, which they're buying a lot of lamb as well.
That's going to factor off into high red meat prices generally.
But what they're saying that by twenty twenty eight it
will probably come back a little bit and it's going
to settle in at about five hundred and fifty to
five hundred and seventy cents a kilo between twenty twenty
eight and twenty thirty three.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Well, that's still bloody good money I missed.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
You know. I think most farmers would say I can
make good money, and that particularly you know way up
north where they're mainly having these brahmins or yaxes they're
impolitely called by us others where you know, they were
lucky to get two dollars fifty akilo and they're getting
three seventy four dollars, you know, good money for those
animals up there on that outback country. So really I
(03:49):
think the optimism is there for beef, particularly in Queensland.
The question is are we going to be able to
produce enough to actually fully take advantage of all those prices?
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Incredible but good to have some sort of future proofing
in there. As you say, it's still at reasonable amounts.
Even if it does back off a little bit, you've
covered off a little bit. The other UAE free trade
agreement will be very good for Australians. Now, unisith this
is interesting finds for the first time that more obese
children globally are malnourished more than thin ones.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Yeah, well this is an interesting story. You know, way
back in the seventies.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
There was a big report they talked about the Green Revolution.
They were going to solve famine in the world by
these new varieties of rice that came out. Ira eight
was the real hero of all that. But in fact,
while it solved the shortage of carbohydrate, it did not
solve the shortage of protein and therefore the malnourishment of kids.
(04:47):
So we didn't have any more famines in terms of
total food. We certainly have always had some problem with malnutrition.
Now in Africa, a lot of the problem is education
of the mothers in knowing what they need to feed.
But in Australia and in the sophisticated countries, we're now
seeing malnourishment and these are amongst obese kids because there's
(05:08):
much too much relying on ultra refined foods as they
call them, or junk food I think we preferred to
call it, and people it's a convenience food. Both parents
are working, just get them summoned to fill them up.
And they're saying that obesity now in Australia, and UNISEF
is saying globally is now over fifty percent of those
(05:29):
children are actually obese rather than ultra thin, but they're
still undernourished and suffering from malnutrition. So this is a
massive change, and there's a lot of calls now, of
course for taxes to be brought in on junk food,
on over fatty, over salted foods, and over sugar foods
to try and solve this problem, a very different problem
(05:51):
than the one we had way back when we saw
those caleegal wrecks of Ethiopian children back in the fifties
and sixties.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Homish in remarkable stuff. Remarkable stuff.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Right.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
I'm not going to talk to RUG because you're just
going to give us our best coach back at some point,
thank you. But I do want to talk about wis
some Australia pushing for sharing to be in the Olympics
in Brisbane twenty thirty two, get the hand piece out,
grind the comb.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
I'm there well in the fed inc Of department.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
I don't think it's going to happen Hamish, but there
is a West Australian teenager who's calling her for to
be included. Interestingly, she comes from Catanning, which is right
next door to Darken where earlier this year a New
Zealand girl from I think she came from overall wee here?
Is that? How you say that? In New Zealand And
(06:38):
Alexa Phillip broke Phillips broke the female world record for
the most marino shoes hues sean in eight hours, three
hundred and sixty seven. So right next door to her,
it's a big shearing area. And as we've now had
a call from Catanning this Kay Kayley Sander is watching
the Paris Olympics. She thought one sport was missing sharing,
(07:01):
so she's put in the submission to Brisbane. They're allowed
to choose one sport and she's going to push pretty
hard with and support. I'm sure of the Western Australian
government they have it put in how many countries we'd
have competing might be Australian, New Zealand and maybe South Africa.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
That might be the end of that.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Oh, the Welsh are pretty good.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
The Scott's go right too.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Maybe they'll be the odd Frenchman in there as well,
but yeah, I think it'd be good. Let's see how
the World Championships go with the Golden She is here,
mastered and in March. Hey, Chris, leave you to it
to go and enjoy Woggle Wogga. Thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
As always, no worries. Homi's great to talk there.
On the country.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
It is that time where we head across the ditch,
across the Tasman and catch up with our wonderful Australian
corresponded Chris Russell's bit of a roady down to woggle Woggle.
We might talk about that at the end, but right now,
Chris wool prices enjoy a meteoric rise over the last
ten weeks. What's behind that?
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Well, Hamish, this has snuck up on us a bit
the AFO long time. You know, we used to talk
every week about walp price and report on and we
sort of got bored with it. We've always sat around
the eleven hundred cents of kilo, nothing much happening.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Everyone's dorm and glue.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
But in the last ten weeks we've seen the longest
run of price rises in war on the Least Eastern
Market Indicator, which is what we use as a guideline
since nineteen eighty seven.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
That's a long time ago.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
And in the last it's gone up four dollars a kilo,
and it's gone up a dollar akilo just in the
last week. So I thought, well, I've better have a
bit of a look at you know, what's driving this all?
Of a sudden, and there's the old Chinese story of
as usual, that's where seventy percent of our wall goes.
And in particular, the Chinese government is looking to replace uniforms. Now,
(01:08):
it's interesting that if you look back to the nineteen
fifties when wool was selling for a pound a pound,
which in today's money works out for I think it
round about thirty two dollars a kilo, and that was
also driven by renewal of all the uniforms for the
new uniforms for the Chinese army in those days. So
they're looking to replace the uniforms, which is that's creating demand.
(01:31):
There's also a dramatic shortage of all of course, a
lot of people gone out of wool producing sheep more
into the lambs because that's where the money's been, and
so they're having to compete for the wall. So the
haggling that used to occur at the ockins, that's not
happening at the moment, and we're seeing them more or
less paying whatever they need to pay to get hold.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Of this wool.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
And so everyone is pretty excited about where that might go.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
And I went.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
To a talk by the head of a Wi the
other day, and he's always been optimistic that wool was
going to make a comeback because we want to get
rid of all the microplastics and all the other the
sort of nasties out of our clothing. And it looks
like he's been proven right because there's certainly some money
in into the moment and there's no sign of looking
like that price rose is going to stop homish yep.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
And if it's driven by that demand on that scale
from China, I think you're one hundred percent onto it.
Chris beef to keep rising over there for two years
prediction of by thirty five percent.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Yes, well, you know, we're in the case of at
the moment we're a bit short of beef in the South,
and there's lots of beef in the in the North.
But it's been interesting to see where that market's likely
to go. And I was reading some forecasts by some
of the ex so called experts.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Here and they're saying.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
That we could see up to thirty to thirty five percent.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Height in prices over the next couple of years.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
You know, due to the expansion in demand, particularly for
our meat and particularly from America.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
We've got a new free trade agreement now with the
United Arab.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Emirates, which they're buying a lot of lamb as well.
That's going to factor off into high red meat prices generally.
But what they're saying that by twenty twenty eight it
will probably come back a little bit and it's going
to settle in at about five hundred and fifty to
five hundred and seventy cents a kilo between twenty twenty
eight and twenty thirty three.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Well, that's still bloody good money I missed.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
You know. I think most farmers would say I can
make good money, and that particularly you know way up
north where they're mainly having these brahmins or yaxes they're
impolitely called by us others where you know, they were
lucky to get two dollars fifty akilo and they're getting
three seventy four dollars, you know, good money for those
animals up there on that outback country. So really I
(03:49):
think the optimism is there for beef, particularly in Queensland.
The question is are we going to be able to
produce enough to actually fully take advantage of all those prices?
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Incredible but good to have some sort of future proofing
in there. As you say, it's still at reasonable amounts.
Even if it does back off a little bit, you've
covered off a little bit. The other UAE free trade
agreement will be very good for Australians. Now, unisith this
is interesting finds for the first time that more obese
children globally are malnourished more than thin ones.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Yeah, well this is an interesting story. You know, way
back in the seventies.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
There was a big report they talked about the Green Revolution.
They were going to solve famine in the world by
these new varieties of rice that came out. Ira eight
was the real hero of all that. But in fact,
while it solved the shortage of carbohydrate, it did not
solve the shortage of protein and therefore the malnourishment of kids.
(04:47):
So we didn't have any more famines in terms of
total food. We certainly have always had some problem with malnutrition.
Now in Africa, a lot of the problem is education
of the mothers in knowing what they need to feed.
But in Australia and in the sophisticated countries, we're now
seeing malnourishment and these are amongst obese kids because there's
(05:08):
much too much relying on ultra refined foods as they
call them, or junk food I think we preferred to
call it, and people it's a convenience food. Both parents
are working, just get them summoned to fill them up.
And they're saying that obesity now in Australia, and UNISEF
is saying globally is now over fifty percent of those
(05:29):
children are actually obese rather than ultra thin, but they're
still undernourished and suffering from malnutrition. So this is a
massive change, and there's a lot of calls now, of
course for taxes to be brought in on junk food,
on over fatty, over salted foods, and over sugar foods
to try and solve this problem, a very different problem
(05:51):
than the one we had way back when we saw
those caleegal wrecks of Ethiopian children back in the fifties
and sixties.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Homish in remarkable stuff. Remarkable stuff.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Right.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
I'm not going to talk to RUG because you're just
going to give us our best coach back at some point,
thank you. But I do want to talk about wis
some Australia pushing for sharing to be in the Olympics
in Brisbane twenty thirty two, get the hand piece out,
grind the comb.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
I'm there well in the fed inc Of department.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
I don't think it's going to happen Hamish, but there
is a West Australian teenager who's calling her for to
be included. Interestingly, she comes from Catanning, which is right
next door to Darken where earlier this year a New
Zealand girl from I think she came from overall wee here?
Is that? How you say that? In New Zealand And
(06:38):
Alexa Phillip broke Phillips broke the female world record for
the most marino shoes hues sean in eight hours, three
hundred and sixty seven. So right next door to her,
it's a big shearing area. And as we've now had
a call from Catanning this Kay Kayley Sander is watching
the Paris Olympics. She thought one sport was missing sharing,
(07:01):
so she's put in the submission to Brisbane. They're allowed
to choose one sport and she's going to push pretty
hard with and support. I'm sure of the Western Australian
government they have it put in how many countries we'd
have competing might be Australian, New Zealand and maybe South Africa.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
That might be the end of that.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Oh, the Welsh are pretty good.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
The Scott's go right too.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Maybe they'll be the odd Frenchman in there as well,
but yeah, I think it'd be good. Let's see how
the World Championships go with the Golden She is here,
mastered and in March. Hey, Chris, leave you to it
to go and enjoy Woggle Wogga. Thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
As always, no worries. Homi's great to talk there.
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