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Canada is sitting on a golden fleece of opportunity to lead North America in wool transformation if it can get the infrastructure in place.

Jane Underhill, Canada’s International Wool Trade Organization (IWTO) deputy head of delegation, said wool produced in Canada is on par with that of Germany, one of the world’s top producers of wool blankets.

“We have the same breeds here,” she said. “I think we have one million sheep, and Germany has about 1.4 million sheep. They have the same transformation and scouring issues. It’s an identical industry, yet they have managed to be the world’s top producer of wool blankets.”

“We believe Canadian wool is ideal for carpet fibre, or interiors and housewares,” said Underhill. “We can do more with our fibre in that sector than we can with clothing unless you’re talking about artisanal knitting.”

Underhill said the response was surprising when a pitch was made to Havelock Wool, a United States company, to set up a satellite facility and use Canadian wool for insulation production.

“When they found out our micron range is 28, they said no, your wool is too good a quality,” she said.

Jenn MacTavish, Ontario Sheep Farmers executive director, said the trend of hand-creating fleece-to-fibre clothing and textiles was gaining steam before the pandemic and artisanal wool demand has skyrocketed in the last two years.

“There’s a resurgence in people wanting to create their own clothing. It’s like the slow food movement, only a slow clothing movement,” said MacTavish.

Revolution Wool and Topsy Farms are Ontario producers that have successfully marketed and showcased the quality, versatility, environmental and health benefits of their flocks’ fibre to consumers, she added.

Relationships the two ventures have cultivated through their online presence satisfy consumers’ need to feel connected to where their materials are coming from, MacTavish said.

Underhill said the key is not to get stuck in the all-or-nothing mindset that vacillates between the mini-mill or macro enterprise and mass industrial production. Focus on the middle ground, she advises.

Canada doesn’t have semi-light industrial processing capacity to scour massive amounts of wool each day.

“We have a scouring facility in Ontario; they have two machines. One has a 2,500-kilogram capacity per day, and one has 5,000 kilograms per day,” she said. “(The latter) is a great size for Canada. That’s exactly what we need.”

The Campaign for Wool’s 2021 to 2026 Canadian Wool Industry strategic plan outlines five obstacles to a thriving national wool industry and includes several ways to achieve success.

“The key strategic initiatives are to rebrand and revalue Canadian wool, to advocate for the domestic industry and to shine a light on Canadian wool on a global stage,” said Underhill. “We have 10 tactics we’re working on regularly to relieve those five bottlenecks around education, outreach, brokerage, infrastructure and branded products.”

Once it devises a way to pay farmers fairly for their wool and get it into the pipeline, the challenge for the industry is to access mid-sized and scaled infrastructure to transform raw product into a saleable commodity.

Underhill has written a plan that outlines social benefits within the manufacturing chain. It involves a redistribution of profit from luxury carpet sales to ensure everyone, including farmers, is paid fairly.

The plan was well received in Greenland at the North Atlantic Native Sheep and Wool Conference in July and will be pitched at the International Wool Trade Conference (IWTC) in China this fall, said Underhill.

“Farmers are feeling the pinch, and if OSF, the Canadian Wool Council and the Campaign for Wool can increase the attention and returns on wool, it can only help producers diversify,” said MacTavish.

Underhill is also crafting an upholstery plan aimed at the transportation market to provide airline and train seat covers at an appealing price point.

Canada has skilled trades and manufacturing opportunities for wool, including Filature Lemieux Spinning in the Beauce region of Quebec.

Lemieux has a global reputation for its luxury carpets and blankets. Traditionally the company sourced its wool solely from Britain and New Zealand but has added Canadian suppliers in the last year or so.

The textile industry has overlooked the quality and availability of meat-breed fleece of Ontario, Quebec and Alberta flocks, said Underhill, but that’s slowly changing.

She is optimistic that Canada could become North America’s wool transformation epicentre, especially as the Beauce region considers building a mid-size scouring operation.

Underhill said there’s potential to integrate traditional fibre knowledge and the natural fibre experience of displaced Ukrainians, Syrians and Canadian newcomers and meld that into a contemporary wool manufacturing industry.

“Ukraine used to be a terrific place for wool transformation,” she said. “Is anybody coming to Canada with those skills and knowledge, and can we use their expertise to help revitalize this industry?”

Underhill said it is challenging to ensure Canada’s wool retains its value when harvested. While Canadian meat-breed sheep shearers are skilled, most lack the knowledge to evaluate the wool and correctly identify garment-quality fibre.

“(Teaching) people how to shear for the value of the wool ensures the wool comes off the animal in a way that maintains the value,” said Underhill. Unless an animal is sheared in one smooth motion, the smaller second cut fibres jam up the carding process.

The Campaign for Wool and the Canadian Wool Council are crafting a nationally standardized shearing certification program focused on assessing fleece and shearing for the textile sector.

A secondary benefit would be an influx of qualified shears who will service specialized flocks of 30 or fewer because those producers struggle to secure shearing times.

Finally, there is a producer education element to lower the percentage of wool contamination, which accounts for a 40 per cent loss in usable wool weight.

Low- to no-cost adjustments in on-farm sheep management could significantly lower the presence of manure, mud, urine, chaff, hay or other foreign objects, said Underhill.

Lower contaminant levels would improve fibre value through volume increases.

While it might not immediately increase the per-kilogram price of raw wool, producers with low contamination could command higher prices, Underhill said.

This article originally appeared in Farmtario.

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