Irish wool prices 'ridiculously low'
There is an "urgent need" for new thinking on how to increase the value of wool, the ICSA said.
The immediate publication of the wool feasibility study has been called for as "anger grows" among sheep farmers due to "ridiculously low" wool prices in Ireland, according to a farming organisation.
A major review of the potential demand for wool-based products is due to be published in the coming weeks.
The wool feasibility study, which is being led by the Agile Executive (a consortium of experts from Munster Technological University and Donegal Yarns) is expected to assist in the formulation of a strong policy framework for the Irish wool industry.
Government funding of €100,000 was allocated in Budget 2021 to conduct the review of the potential demand in domestic and international markets for wool-based products such as insulation and fertilisers.
Sheep chairman of the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers' Association (ICSA) Sean McNamara said that while wool prices are struggling internationally, Irish wool prices "are particularly bad".
Mr McNamara said that farmers in the north and Great Britain have received 36.4p/kg (42c/kg) for wool for 2021, "which is double what Irish farmers are being offered – with quotes here coming in at in at 15c/kg to 20c/kg".
“There is an urgent need for new thinking on how to increase the value of wool," Mr McNamara said.
"The current inflationary environment is opening up opportunities for wool that may not have been economically viable up to now."
Mr McNamara pointed to the value of wool as a fertiliser, and also that with the price of insulation "increasing rapidly in line with all construction costs", there is a "real opportunity" to capture that market using wool.
"Farmers are incredibly angry about this.”
Mr McNamara said he was disappointed that the much-anticipated wool feasibility study has yet to be published.
“We were promised the study would be delivered early in the year," he continued.
"Minister McConalogue has now said it will be published in the coming weeks, but we have a lot of ground to make up if we are to breathe life back into the wool industry and give sheep farmers a decent return in the process.
"The study must function as a launch pad for the wool sector, and serious investment and action must follow.”
Speaking in the Dáil recently, Mr McConalogue said that the completion of the report "took longer than we had hoped", but that Government is "pushing hard to keep it moving along".
"Thankfully, we now have the report and it will be published in the next short period - over the next few weeks," he added.
The publication of the report was initially expected in the first quarter of 2022.
