Mulesing and quality schemes continue to be topical in the Australian greasy wool market, with the mulesing issues non-existent in the other southern hemisphere merino wool exporter countries. This article takes a look at quality scheme sales volumes during the last season.
Mecardo last looked at quality scheme volumes in June 2021 (see article here). The updated list of quality schemes in the Australian auction market (see more here) is available on the AWEX website. There are 12 Australian and 3 New Zealand schemes. The Pareto principle (see more here) is working in wool quality schemes, with the top 2 (RWS and Authentico) accounting for 60% of merino wool accreditations and the same two schemes accounting for 83% of the crossbred accreditations.
Figure 1 shows the proportion of 13 quality scheme accreditations for merino wool sold at auction in 2024-25 (last season). Keep in mind that many lots have multiple quality scheme accreditations, so there is a lot of overlap between schemes. Also, keep in mind wool sold outside of auctions, which is accredited to a quality system – most likely to either RWS or Authentico. Within auctions, some 5.6% of merino wool (in clean terms) was accredited to RWS and 5.2% to Authentico, with these 2 schemes accounting for 60% of accreditations. SustainaWool, Australian Superfine Wool Growers, and ResponsiWool were the next group of schemes with 1.9% to 2.4% shares. Beyond that, the volume shares fall away to negligible levels for the other schemes. By way of comparison, the South African merino clip has 55% accredited to sustainable schemes, and in Uruguay, it is claimed that 90% of the merino clip is accredited to RWS.
Figure 2 shows the proportion of quality scheme accreditation for crossbred wool sold at auction in 2024-25. RWS accounted for 3.3% of crossbred sales and Authentico 2.1%, with these two schemes accounting for 83% of accreditations.
Now, quality scheme accreditations vary greatly by micron category. Figure 3 shows the share of merino wool sold (clean terms) by micron category in 2024-25 for the top three schemes. Accreditation is highest for the very fine merino micron categories, and falls as the fibre diameter increases.
Figure 4 repeats the analysis of accreditation by micron category for crossbred wool, with little correlation between micron and accreditation levels. However, accreditation does reach a low of around 28 micron, which is where the bulk of crossbred production in Australia is located.
Framing the main quality schemes is the proportion of wool which is declared as ceased/non-mulesed (CM-NM). For merino auction sales last season, 17.4% in clean terms was declared CM-NM, and for crossbred wool, 40.6%. Within these CM-NM proportions, there is ample room for quality scheme accreditation to grow.
What does it mean?
RWS and Authentico dominate Australian accreditations, with Authentico being a much smaller player in relation to RWS in other merino exporting countries. There is plenty of scope for schemes requiring non-mulesed wool to grow, given the gap between quality scheme-accredited and CM-NM declared wool, in both merino and crossbred. The uptake of quality schemes continues to be heavily skewed in merino the finer micron categories.
Key Points
- Within the 15 quality schemes listed by AWEX, two (RWS and Authentico) dominate merino and crossbred accreditations.
- The level of accreditation varies widely across the merino micron categories (from high levels at the very fine end to low levels at the broad end)
- There continues to be ample scope for schemes requiring non-mulesed wool to grow, given current levels of CM-NM declarations.
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Click on figure to expand
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Data sources: AWEX, ICS, Mecardo
