Give fleece a chance; A revolution in wool marketing began in Gwynedd this week. Andrew Forgrave , rural affairs editor, asks if it can it save the British wool industry.

Byline: Andrew Forgrave

IN recent years wool has had a tough time. The emergence of synthetics, central heating and laminate flooring saw commodity prices crashing: some farmers even began to regard wool as a weed that their sheep would be better off without.

The biggest impact came in 1992 with the removal of the wool price guarantee, which made the fibre vulnerable to currency fluctuations. To make matters worse, the 2001 foot-and-mouth disaster lowered Britain's annual wool clip by almost 15%.

Since then, however, things have begun to look up for this versatile but maligned fibre. New uses are being found all the time. Earlier this year the New Zealand-based company, Canes is Network, produced the world's first ``smart wool'' -- conductive fibres which are blended with ordinary wool.

When attached to a battery similar to those used for mobile phones, the material can be woven into socks that, with the flick of a switch, can keep your feet warm.

Other intelligent fabrics are planned too, such as carpets that change colour or textiles that respond to the environment, becoming thicker as temperatures fall.

Some alternatives are already wellestablished: Thermafleece insulation is used in building projects from single homes to council estates, and by the National Trust for renovation and conservation schemes.

This market is growing 10% a year, driven by the health fears associated with glass fibre insulation. The planned pounds 3. 6m wool research centre at Dinas Mawddwy's collection depot will aim to cash in on this trend.

But even as wool adapts to new markets, it has struggled to come to terms with existing ones. In Britain the selling and marketing of wool would still be recognised by Thomas Hardy: prices are usually determined by ruddy-faced merchants based on little more than feel and texture.

Now the industry is being dragged kicking and screaming into the consumer age. Last year's selling season saw the end of `open-cry' auctions of British wool and a change to electronic auctioning. Not only is the new system faster, it's 25% cheaper.

A second major change took place on Monday on Caernarfon's outskirts. Cibyn Industrial Estate is an inauspicious place for a revolution, but the British Wool Marketing Board (BWMB) believes its new testing laboratory will help re-invigorate the UK wool industry.

In a joint venture with New Zealand's Wool Testing Authority (WTA), and grant-funded by the WDA, the pounds 1. 2m facility will offer the first independent quality assessment of all wool produced in the northern hemisphere. Wales was chosen for its location because of its sheep farming heritage.

``At the moment wool assessment is more art form than science, '' said Dr Alan Folwell, chairman of WTA Europe and a former MD of Brintons Carpets.

``It's reminiscent of the Industrial Revolution when buyers based their decisions on loyalty and instinct.

``This new facility will give wool users, sellers and buyers high integrity product information. ''

Data provided by the lab will not be used to settle old arguments, such as the relative merits of North and South Wales wool, but as a marketing tool in the increasingly competitive global marketplace.

It will enable manufacturers to objectively source wool of differing qualities to suit differing applications.

Just as importantly, it should enable British wool producers to add value to a material that is traditionally exported to the commodity markets, said Dr Folwell. Around 70% of British wool currently goes overseas. ``Ultimately we hope to create a cluster of wool expertise in North West Wales that would encompass testing, research and manufacturing. ''

Wool samples arriving at the lab are subjected to a series of tests. They're air blasted to give them uniformity before being analysed for purity: bits are baked to determine mineral content; others are distilled with alcohol to release grease; and a poor young girl called Selina laboriously hand picks out seeds, dags, twigs and burrs to determine ``veg- et able matter''. Other samples are tested for their stretch and ``bounce-ability'' -- a measure of durability. British wools are known for their endurance, which is why most go into carpet production.

``It's why the new Queen Mary 2 was kitted out in carpets made from British wools, '' said BWMB James Turner. ``Being able to give a quantitative assessment of this ability may help us to make inroads in, for example, the US, where only 5% of carpets are woollen. ``The big casinos in Las Vegas already use carpets from British wool because they get so much wear. ''

Caernarfon's testing lab will handle wool not just from Britain but from most of the northern hemisphere, as well as South America. At stake is not just a quality reference between national clips but, more importantly, the very reputation of wool itself.

Wool makes up less than 3% of the world's fibre production market. It has struggled to withstand the march of natural competitors, such as cotton, and synthetics, like nylon. All wool producing countries therefore have a stake in the fibre's long-term prospects. Three years ago there were five wool scouring plants in the UK, today there are just two. There is no longer a combing plant in the UK and, in the last 12 months, UK carpet yarn spinning has contracted still further.

Against this background is the menacing shape of CAP reform. While the dust is yet to settle on planned subsidy changes, the UK wool industry is bracing itself for a major fall in the national wool clip if, as expected, sheep farmers down size their flocks.

It means that, increasingly, the emphasis will be on quality, not quantity. New Zealand's experiences, in which flock reductions in the 1980s led to market-focused wool innovations, showed this needn't necessarily be a painful exercise, said Suzanne Blumhardt, the country's assistant High Com-missioner in the UK. ``While sheep numbers fell, efficiency rose, '' she told guests at the Caernarfon lab's opening ceremony on Monday.

``Over a decade clean wool production fell from 240 tonnes to 153 tonnes but average earnings per kilo rose from 414 cents to 551 cents. Overall earnings from wool remained fairly similar. ''

By Christmas regional development agency Cwmad hopes to clinch a deal with Irish investors for the new wool research facility at Dinas Mawddwy. The centre should be open by the end of next year, said Cwmad managing direc-tor Elwyn Vaughan. Initially its efforts will focus on wool's potential as an insulation material in the building trade: not only can it be handled without special protection, it requires only a seventh of the energy needed to make glass fibre alternatives. ``We also hope to be looking at potential uses as matting and felting in the construction and landscaping sectors, '' said Mr Vaughan. For sheep producers, quality issues will determine the size of the second element of their wool cheques. Longer term everyone will benefit, feels Emyr Jones, deputy president of the Farmers Union of Wales. He said: ``In 1937 my grandfather was offered just a ha'penny for his wool clip so he decided to keep it back. But 12 months later he was offered the same.

``Prices did improve in the 1960s and 70s -- they paid for the cost of wintering ewe lambs. But these days we're paying more to employ contract shearers than we get for the wool. ``So anything that can be done to drive up prices has to be welcomed. ''

CAPTION(S):

The official opening of the pounds 1. 8m wool research laboratory in Caernarfon was attended by WDA chairman Roger Jones, general manager Tim Parkes, WTA chairman Dr Alan Folwell and assistant high commissioner of New Zealand Suzanne Blumhardt (above), while Tim Kennedy (left) and Julie Owen (below) go to work on scientific analysis of wool samples; Pictures: JEFF PITT