Wool growers now able to use Woolmark brand on their bales
WOOL growers will now be able to use the Woolmark brand to stamp their wool bales.
WOOL growers will now be able to use the Woolmark brand to stamp their wool bales.
The Woolmark brand is “the world’s best-known textile quality fibre brand” and Woolmark certification allows licensees to use the Woolmark logo.
Up until now the Woolmark brand has solely been a quality assurance scheme for both manufacturers and the consumers.
However, at the recent Australian Wool Innovation annual general meeting, chief executive Stuart McCullough said that as an alternative to just having the Woolmark brand as a quality assurance mark for garments, it will move to becoming a supply chain integrity mark.
Mr McCullough also said the number of Woolmark licensees had been dropping.
“We will start with offering every wool grower in Australia a free Woolmark licence to use and a bale stencil to put Australian-grown Merino wool on their bale,” Mr McCullough said.
“We think this will be an important part of the future, we know that Gen Y and Gen Z want to know where it (wool) is coming from, how it was treated in the supply chain and how it’s going to end up when they throw it out.
“This is a trend that is going to become more profound and we felt that we had the basis with the Woolmark licensing program to form up a supply chain integrity program.”
Mr McCullough said Australian Wool Innovation would work with the supply chain to get more accreditations.
“There are a number of retailers already accredited with a Woolmark licence, a number of spinners accredited and now wool growers will have a licence,” Mr McCullough said.
He said WoolQ would be the “storage unit” for this information
Eligible Australian wool growers can receive a free bale stencil from The Woolmark Company.