Cardings looked to hold their ground in the north and west but lost 24c in the southern market.
The AWEX EMI closed on 1472c, down 23c for the week in auction sales in Australia.
This was the fourth week in a row where the AWEX EMI has lost ground – which now totals aggregate losses of about 5% from the most recent peak.
The 28,500 bales on offer were met with some apprehension from the Chinese sector initially, however some improvements were noticed as Wednesdays market evolved, with Thursday experiencing some price degradation on the Superfine and Fine categories, whilst the market for Medium and Fine-Medium lots saw some improvement.
The big influencers this week remained style and vegetable matter content in the Fleece and Skirtings, with anything slightly off in either of the categories attracting some hefty discounts.
Crossbreds looked to be improving over the week with the exception of Melbourne 30 MPG which was off 30c clean for the week.
Similarly, cardings looked to hold their ground in the north and west but lost 24c in the southern market.
More challenges are faced next week when 25,200 bales go to market in Sydney and Melbourne – this year’s smallest offering. Whilst in a pure market vacuum, this should produce a better result.
I believe that there will be spasmodic interest and risk of further market degradation. In saying that, the current market levels for Merino types are still at highly profitable levels.
The key issues in this market remain; providing well classed lots to the market.
The second free hit is completing the National Wool Declaration, and yet another “free hit” is registering your clip for Sustain-a-Wool (if you are not mulesing or if you are using pain relief).
Please speak to your WTO regarding what is best for your enterprise.
-Marty Moses, Moses & Son, Temora