New Zealand-Promoting wool.
NEW ZEALAND-WOOL INDUSTRY.
AS New Zealand’s farm fraternity debate the pros and cons of the NAIT scheme, Elders’ investment in wool traceability was released to Straight Furrow last week.
Elders has negotiated the world rights for traceability technology to track wool used in carpets. Put simply, it is the equivalent of micro-chipping wool, said Elders general manager Stuart Chapman.
Verifi TT was a collaboration with AgResearch in partnership with an Australian company that includes the leading research institute CSIRO.
There is nothing to compare with it in the world, an enthusiastic Mr Chapman said.
AgResearch claims the Verifi TT will revolutionise the international textile market by eliminating fraud and protecting valuable brands. To date there had been no way of verifying carpet brands claiming wool origin or components, however this latest technology makes it possible.
Verifi TT is an invisible synthetic fibre dosed with a unique signature marker using a patented process, which is then licensed to Elders.
The fibre can be blended with the wool at any stage of the manufacturing process.
A small handheld device is run over the carpet and gives a reading of the wool’s origins – in this case Elders – or informs that it is made of composition fibres.
The verifier is the final link between the grower and the retailer and was pivotal to Elders securing major supply contracts with the American carpet retailer CCA.
"They knew we had it but what sold them is the environmental credibility we are setting up with it," Mr Chapman said.
CCA invests heavily in educating its retailers on how to successfully sell carpets.
Its retailers will have the tracers supplied to them and use them to demonstrate to consumers the authenticity of Elders’ carpets.
This revolutionary technology will enable Elders to differentiate its wool and therefore maximise its value.
Mr Chapman said its carpets would be pitched at the very top end of American consumers, mainly professionals who think nothing of paying premiums for interior products and changing their carpets when they tire of a particular colour.
"Our carpets target those higher end professionals with the higher disposable dollar and the wives are fashion conscious in terms of interior textiles."
Sustainability and the whole issue of the environment was being questioned by those consumers. Sustainability was also being questioned by New Zealand wool producers.
Mr Chapman hoped they would have faith in the fact that the CCA deal and the tracer technology represented major investments by Elders in the future of New Zealand wool production.
"We wouldn’t have invested in this if we did not know the premiums were there," he said.
When Elders releases its specifications for growers, Mr Chapman said he believed wool quality would improve again. Some of the carpet yarn will be processed in New Zealand. The Verifi TT and Elders carpets will be launched at the prestigious Surfaces carpet expo in Las Vegas in 2010.
