British Wool experienced “weaker demand for its product” at a recent auction, which saw 30% of the wool offered at the sale unsold and being taken back in.

This auction was held on Tuesday, March 19, and was reported as “having a very similar dynamic to the previous auction on March 5,” according to British Wool.

British Wool said it was “prepared to meet the market to a certain extent, with the index falling back by 2.5%, but with a comfortable stock position it opted to take wool back into stock rather than accept a more significant price reduction”.

Better colour combing types were well bid for at the auction, but poor colour wools were clearly out of favour.

Welsh Mountain wool which has struggled to find a market over recent months saw better demand, with new interest from export customers, and saw an uptick in price.

These types, along with Swaledale wools, are however still trading significantly below the cost of collection and handling.

The offer amounted to 1,112t spread over 158 lots. Of this, 775t spread over 107 lots sold, a slightly higher weight than in the sale two weeks ago.

The 51 lots taken back into stock were a broad mix of types including fine, medium, Mule, hill, and oddments.

Most of the mountain wools in the offer sold. British Wool has now sold 14.3m kg of the 2023 clip equivalent to 69% of its anticipated supply for the year.

The average price dropped back to 76p/kg (equivalent to 89c/kg).

This table provides an overview of prices from recent British Wool auctions Source: British Wool

The 2.5% underlying price decline was compounded by mix effects with low value mountain wools a relatively high proportion of the wool sold.

British Wool said the market is “a long way from giving UK growers the return they need for their wool”.

The organisation maintains that UK farmers require an average auction price of around £1.20/kg (€1.40/kg) just to cover their costs of shearing.

The British Wool price index was down 3.1% sale on sale and the average greasy price was 76.1p/kg.

The clearances by wool type were as follows:

  • Fine wool- 38%;
  • Romney- 18%;
  • Medium wool- 79%;
  • Mule wool- 74%;
  • Hill wool- 79%;
  • Mountain wool- 86%;
  • Lamb- 90%.
BRITISH WOOL SHEEP WOOL WOOL PRICES