First full QA wool delivery for China

9 April 2001

MEDIA RELEASE
Business and rural media
IMMEDIATE

First full QA wool delivery for China
[758 words]

A five tonne trial wool shipment currently on its way to China is believed to be the first fully quality assured consignment sent to that market.

Exporter H Dawson Sons and Co said their customer, the QiFa Textile Group in Hebei, will use the wool for premium hand knitting yarn.

Wool for fully quality assured Fernmark Gold deliveries is sourced entirely through the Fernmark Quality Programme network which extends from the farm to the export dump store. All wools that make up a delivery can be traced back to the farm of origin.

In this case, the Coopworth hogget wool that made up the delivery came from a single farm – Will and Nick Morris’s ‘Berriedale’ farm in North Canterbury.
Dawson’s General Manager, Mark Johnston, said the impetus for the shipment came from both the customer and the suppliers.

“The QiFa group was after fine, sound hogget fleeces that were free of vegetable matter and with excellent white colour. At around the same time, Will and Nick Morris asked our HD Farm Direct operation to market their Coopworth hogget wool.

“HD Farm Direct manager, Tony Cunningham and buyer Don Kars approached our exporting arm to see whether we could link Will and Nick’s wool to a Fernmark Brand Partner.

“We thought this was a natural progression as ‘Berriedale’, HD Farm Direct and H. Dawson Sons & Co were all Fernmark Accredited. It all came together at just the right time.

“We have a unique and innovative marketing service, which goes from the farmgate, through HD Farm Direct and the exporting arm H. Dawson Wool, into our substantial global network, which includes our Beijing office. This appealed to both QiFa Textile Group and Berriedale, and made the communication between the mill and grower more direct.”

The QiFa Textile Group is going to make the Morris’s wool into high value hand knitting yarn, which it will sell at a high retail price through some of the group’s stores in China.

“This is a trial, and I have told our technologists to pay more attention on the delivery. I hope the quality of wool delivery will be a higher grade than the normal orders, says QiFa Textile Group’s CEO, Wang Qifa.

“If it is successful I will follow the market pipeline to purchase more New Zealand wool. I am looking forward it.”

According to Wang the Fernmark brand helps QiFa sell its products in China.
“In China most people trust well-known brands. We are a New Zealand Fernmark brand partner of Wools of New Zealand and we expect to produce high quality products by using quality NZ scoured wool.”

Wang said QiFa will also be using some recently purchased Wool Research Organisation of New Zealand (WRONZ) technology to process the shipment.
The WRONZ LincLITE process uses steam or hot water to produce a bulkier yarn, which uses less wool to produce lighter garments without loss of cover or warmth.

Dawson’s Mark Johnston said he was confident the trial would be a success.
“We have been marketing growers’ wool direct to mills but to take a Fernmark Accredited grower’s clip and sell it as a Fernmark Gold delivery into China makes it extra special.

“We believe the wool is of the highest standard to meet the mill’s meticulous requirements. The QiFa Textile Group has the innovation and skill to ensure their product will be endorsed in China.

“As Chinese living standards increase there will be more opportunities to send more FQP Wools to China, and we look forward to repeat orders from QiFa.”
Some 1500 growers are Fernmark accredited, accounting for around a quarter of wool at auction.

Johnston believes that the free market forces of supply and demand will govern how many growers join the Fernmark Quality Programme.

“We would like more growers to belong to the programme. But we do have clients overseas who will buy only from a Fernmark Accredited Exporter.

“The major difference between FQP deliveries and normal deliveries is under the FQP everyone from the grower to the mill has to conform to the extra FQP quality assurance requirements.”

[ends]

Contact details …

QiFa 3

Reporters:
For more information, contact:
Mark Johnston, General Manager, H Dawson Sons and Co,
Tel 03-399 6917, or
Kelvin Whall, Manager, Quality Assurance, WoolPro,
Tel 03-343 7918

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