Farmer’s Weekly – 23 August 2019

23 August 2019 farmer’sweekly 19

Therecentinterregionalflock

competitioninTarkastaddemonstrated

thattherewasa markedimprovement

inthequalityofwoolsheepproduced

intheformerCiskeiandTranskei

regionsbycommunalwoolproducers.

ThiswasaccordingtoGawievanWyk,

an adviser at the South African

National Wool Growers’ Association

(NWGA) in the Northern Cape.

Van Wyk, who was a judge at

the recent competition, which was

organised by the NWGA, first officiated

at the competition six years ago.

“Since then, the quality has improved

by leaps and bounds. By far the

majority of the animals entered six

years ago were of a very poor standard.

“This year, about 85% of the animals

could be classed as exceptional. The

rest was of good quality,” he said.

The competition formed

partoftheNWGAGenetic

ImprovementProgramme.

Farmer’sWeeklypreviously

reportedthattheNWGAsuccess

storystartedin 1997 whenthe

industryembarkedonitsagricultural

developmentprogramme.The

objectivewastodevelopstructures

incommunitiesthatfarmerscould

usetoimproveproduction.

TheNWGAfocusedontraining,

infrastructuredevelopment,efficient

marketingofwoolandthegenetic

improvementofsheepflocks.

NWGAstatisticsshowedthat

the1997/1998woolsalescreatedan

incomeofR1,5millionforcommunal

farmers.Theysold 222 610kgwoolvia

theformalwoolmarketstructures

atthetime.In2012/2013,nearly

3,5million kilogram of wool to the

value of more than R130 million was

producedandsold.Inthe 2017/

season, production amounted to

5,4 million kilogram. This provided

communal farmers with an

income of nearly R384 million.

According to Van Wyk, communal

farmers were faced with a set of unique

problems. They had to manage their

flocks in co-operation with as many

as 20 other producers on the same

piece of land. The infrastructure in

communal areas also left a lot to be

desired, and predation posed a real

danger, with sheep needing to be

kraaled at night to safeguard against

predators. “Despite these difficulties,

producers have succeeded in breeding

sheep that were structurally sound,

genetically advanced, early maturing

and with high reproduction rates. The

quality of the wool is outstanding,”

Van Wyk added. – Annelie Coleman

Wool

Communal wool producers excel at flock competition

TheSouthAfricanWooland
MohairBuyers’Association
(SAWAMBA)hasdecidednot
totakepartinwoolauctionsin
SouthAfricauntilfurthernotice.
ThiswasaccordingtoPaul
Lynch,a directoratSAWAMBA.
“Thisaction,resultingfromthe
foot-and-mouthdisease[FMD]
outbreak,whichhasthrown
wooltradingindisarray,has
notbeentakenlightlyaswe
fullyunderstandtheimpactit
hasonproducers,”hesaid.
AccordingtoLynch,this
decisionwastakenduetoChina’s
banonimportingwoolfrom
SouthAfricafollowingtheFMD
outbreakearlierthisyear.In
normaltradingcircumstances,
SAWAMBAbuyerswouldreceive
fundsfrombuyersinChina
betweenfourtosevenweeks
afterbuyingwool.However,
thebanhadresultedinthese
buyersnowonlyreceivingtheir
moneyfourmonthsafterthey
hadalreadypaidforthewool.

Wool

Wool and mohair buyers to avoid wool auctions in SA

“This is because, due to the

FMD outbreak, a new health

certificate has been negotiated,

which incorporates time and

temperature restrictions that

will inactivate any FMD virus.

This means that wool must be

stored at 4°C for four months,

18°C for four weeks, or 37°C for

eight days from the receiving

date,” said Lynch. “With the

temperatures we are experiencing

at present, this would mean that

the [buying] houses would only

receive their funds four months

after the date of purchase.”

South Africa’s very high

interest rates made it expensive

to fund wool for four months

and, because of the present

value of wool, there was not

sufficient funds available.

Lynch said Chinese clients

were not prepared to take the

risk of paying for wool and only

receiving it four months later, as

the market may have depreciated

by as much as 10% in the interim.

“Unfortunately, uncertainty still

clouds the announcement in July

by the General Administration

of Customs of the People’s

Republic of China, subsequent

to their risk assessment of the

FMD situation in South Africa,

that they are lifting the ban

on imported cloven-hoofed

animals and their products.

This applies to all areas of South

Africa, apart from Limpopo, the

Ehlanzeni area of Mpumalanga

and the Umkhanyakude area of

KwaZulu-Natal. However, our

understanding is that all wool

outside these [listed] areas can

be shipped as normal. Wool from

[these] areas is bound by the time

and temperature restrictions.”

While South African buyers

exported to other international

markets besides China, these

could not absorb the balance

of the wool clip not sold to

China, which accounted for over

70% of all wool sold in South

Africa. – Roelof Bezuidenhout