Do you like to know where the fibre in your clothes comes from before you buy? If so, you’re not alone.
Key points:
- Consumers are demanding to know more about where their clothes come from
- Wool producers are signing contracts with clothing brands seeking ethically farmed fibres
- Such contracts insulate farmers against a volatile wool market by locking in prices for a number of years
Growing consumer demand for transparency is driving a rise in the number of farmers selling their wool to clothing brands, rather than the open market.
Wool broker Alistair Calvert contracts up to 500 tonnes a year of Tasmanian wool to clothing brands.
“In this day and age, consumers really want to know where their product comes from,” he said.
“We do a lot of work with brands where we match up the supply with demand and provide that transparency and traceability.
“The last three or four years, it’s grown from a handful of farmers, to between 20 and 30 and it’s becoming an important part of our business.”
Supplying Country Road, Ortovox
For farmers like James Hallett it helps insulate his operation from the sliding wool market.
Up to 20 tonnes of his wool each year is contracted to clothing brands like Country Road and the German sports brand Ortovox.
The companies are willing to pay more and a fixed price for ethically produced fibres.
There are stiff standards though that farmers must meet, around animal welfare and land management.
“We go through a process of ticking boxes to gain that accreditation through audit processors and so forth,” Mr Hallett said.
“The consumer wants to know if it’s sustainable or not, that’s big on their conscience … especially when animals are involved.”
Animal-friendly farming
Mr Hallett does not mules his sheep, a practice still used around Australia, where the skin on a sheep’s backside is cut off to avoid flystrike, an infection caused by flies laying their eggs in faeces and dirt.
But the accreditation sought by big brands goes further than this.
“It also goes into the land use and also into conservation areas — we’ve got some reserves that we’ve locked up over the last decade to protect some endangered species,” he added.
The contracts with clothing brands usually cover three years, allowing farmers to better plan and budget.
“Being able to take our product to specific markets earlier and lock the price in — it’s a wonderful thing and it’s great for our business,” Mr Hallett said.
A spokesperson for Country Road said the company’s contracts with farmers allowed it to trace where a natural fibre came from, so it could “support better working conditions, animal welfare practices and improved environmental impact.”
The company has surveyed its members and 88 per cent consider Country Road using Australian wool and cotton as very important, while 81 per cent want to know the origins of materials used.
The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) is predicting growth in transparency from fashion brands in the years to come, to keep up with consumers’ demand for information.
Knowing where the wool goes
Farmers securing the deals are in the box seat and for people like Mr Hallett it’s a win-win situation.
While customers know where the fibre in their garment comes from, farmers also get to know where their wool goes.
“Traditionally, we have pretty much no idea where our product ends up but on the back of the consumer wanting to know the history of origin, we’re able to know where our product ends up,” Mr Hallett said.
“You can walk into a store in Melbourne, Sydney and Hobart and you can see the product that’s been made from our wool, it’s a good story.”
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