Amongst some of the pessimism and frustration with the wool market currently , there are some bright lights, such as prices at the very fine end of the merino market and premiums for quality schemes, which this article takes a look at.
Mecardo last looked at premiums for wool which was non-mulesed and accredited to a quality scheme in November (see article here), noting the big overlaps in accreditation between RWS and Authentico in particular. With this in mind wool accredited to RWS, Authentico (see here) and SustainaWool (see here) is grouped together in this article, except where noted.
Figure 1 shows the monthly average premium in clean AUD cents per kg from spring 2021 to this month (Feb-25) for the 19.5 micron fleece accredited to RWS (to become the Materials Matter Standard in 2026) sold at auction in South Africa (see more here) and Australia. The premiums seen in 2021 and 2022 were extraordinary, helping to stimulate much interest in accreditation amongst wool growers. However, by late 2022 the premiums had deflated to well below 50 cents per kg and remained at low levels through to mid-2024. Since mid-2024 the premiums have increased, tracking between 50 and 90 cents fairly regularly.
The article in November showed that non-mulesed wool required accreditation to a quality scheme to attract premiums when sold. This situation has not changed as Figure 2 shows. In Figure 2, the “indicator” style fleece wool which is declared as non-mulesed and which has no accreditation to a quality scheme, is compared to wool which is either declared as mulesed, as having pain relief, or has no declaration for January and February only. The bars show the variation in weekly average price effects with the circle showing the median price effect for the two months of sales. A simple look at the median price effect shows there is effectively no difference in price between the two groups of wool.
Figure 3 compares non-mulesed indicator style fleece wool accredited to a quality scheme to comparable non-mulesed wool not accredited to a scheme, for January and February. The vertical bars show there is some variation between weeks, especially for fine wool. The median price effect is between 5% and 9% for most micron categories, sneaking a little lower for 15.5 micron and finer wool, where the base price is a lot higher. That is quite a solid premium.
Finally, Figure 4 looks at crossbred fleece, comparing full-length fleece declared as non-mulesed and accredited to RWS to comparable wool not accredited to RWS. The median price effect shows a consistent premium between 10% and 20% (somewhere between 40 and 70 cents clean as a general rule). In Australia, the volume of RWS-accredited crossbred wool (all categories) has been less than 400 farm bales per week except when New Zealand sells in Melbourne and helps to boost the volume.
What does it mean?
Premiums for quality scheme accredited non-mulesed wool have picked up since mid-2024. Whether they are large enough to encourage a substantial increase in supply will be only answered with time. For the time being reasonable quality accredited merino fleece wool are achieving premiums of 5-9% and crossbreed fleece wool 10-20%.
Key Points
- The increase in merino premiums for quality scheme accredited “indicator” style wool seen during the spring has persisted into 2025, both here and in South Africa.
- The premium for merino fleece has been between 5% and 9% for most micron categories.
- For crossbred fleece the premium has been between 10% and 20%, on low volumes.
Click on figure to expand
Click on figure to expand
Click on figure to expand
Click on figure to expand
Data sources: Mecardo, Cape Wools, RBA, AWEX, ICS
