BC sheep producers shipped less wool for less in 2023, reversing strong growth a year earlier.
BC producers shipped 5,200 kilograms of raw wool in 2023, according to Statistics Canada data released on April 17. This was down from 18,600 kilograms a year earlier.
The shipments fetched an average of 37 cents per kilogram, down dramatically from $1.08 per kilogram a year earlier.
The declines were mirrored in the national data, which Statscan attributed to global market forces.
“Canadian wool producers saw further declines in prices for their wool, as the global oversupply of wool continued,” Statscan reported.
Canadian Co-operative Wool Growers Ltd. is the single largest domestic buyer of wool, but a healthy and growing network of smaller buyers also exists. Many producers engage in direct sales and some process their own wool for on-farm use.
On-farm use in BC has averaged 13,000 kilograms over the past decade, more than twice what the province’s farms shipped in 2023, Statscan reports. Since 2019, on-farm use has exceeded shipments every year except 2022.
But given low market prices and a lack of local mills and processing, many producers simply burn or dump their wool as it has no economic value.
Emily McIvor a Thetis Island producer a partner in New Wave Fibre with Pender Island producer Jodi Schamberger, says that doesn’t need to be the case.
“There are farms and mills, yarn shops, ready-made garment manufacturers and industrial product developers … paying way more than 37 cents per kilogram,” she says. “[They] are finding ways to process and market Canadian wool at prices that make it worthwhile for us to do the work.”
McIvor sits on the board of the Canadian Wool Collective, which offers Canada’s only wool certification program.
One of the collective’s top issues during the current election campaign is greater investment in Canada’s wool production infrastructure to help small and medium-size producers scale up and modernize their operations.
This would support value-added processing, skilled employment and expanded outlets for Canadian wool.
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