78 | Pioneering history knows no bounds Palle Petersen and Senior Wool Buyer, Dave Hudson, with a consignment of Wool Integrity scoured wool – ready for export. Doug McKay and Palle Petersen inspecting a mob of sheep. Doug is their local Canterbury wool rep and also head auctioneer on wool auction day. RURAL SERVICES » Bloch and Behrens Wool Company Now a subsidiary of PGG Wrightson’s the Bloch and Behrens Wool Company dates back to 1856 when it was formed by Ludwig Behrens and Julius Bloch in Copenhagen. General Manager, Palle Petersen, came to New Zealand in 1988, having rst joined the German of ce in 1984. He played a key role in repositioning the company, resulting in it being bought by PGG Wrightsons in 2008. “We’re now the sales and marketing arm of PGG Wrightson’s wool division,” explains Palle. Bloch and Behrens have a market share of between 8% and 10% of the New Zealand wool clip which equates to approximately 8-10 million kilos of wool per annum. Wool is generally traded as a commodity but Bloch and Behrens are targeting high end customers who are focused on producing quality products from the very best wool they can source. We spend a lot of time working with our customers to understand their speci c needs and supply accordingly,” says Palle. “One such example is a customer in the UK who uses our wool to make the felt needed to produce tennis balls such as the Slazenger balls used at Wimbledon. It’s similar to that used for making carpet yarn but, because it’s going into uorescent yellow tennis balls that will be handled, we only source wool that has no vegetable matter contamination in it whatsoever. We guarantee the customer that we only select individual farm lots that have tested 0.0% vegetable matter.” Historically volatile wool prices have made the task of budgeting dif cult for both the international manufacturer and local wool grower alike. To manage this Bloch and Behrens offer long term price stability. Being part of PGG Wrightson’s wool business means they’re able to x prices well into the future, explains Palle. “Most wool exporters mainly purchase wool through our PGG Wrightson wool auction, but because we have a country wide network of wool reps we are able to offer farmers forward contracts at a xed price. This takes the uncertainty out of it and they get a premium over what they might have got at the auction room, as long as their wool continues to meet the criteria for our international customer. in 2014 Bloch and Behrens introduced an innovative three-year contracting solution also designed to take the highs and lows out of wool prices and provide stability for farmers and customers alike. The “Flexi-Contract “, with its three year, month-bymonth, rolling average price for wool, offers price stability in what is still a very volatile market. To meet the demand from high end brands looking to satisfy their customers’ environmental concerns in 2012 they launched their own Wool Integrity™ brand. FOLLOW US Karen Phelps It highlights that their wool, merino or otherwise, can be traced back to the farm of origin with accompanying guarantees around sustainability, animal welfare, health and safety and so on. Under the same brand they recently launched an online store https://woolintegrity.store/ showcasing some of their customers’ products including blankets, throws and some locally produced knitting yarn and beanies. Around 2% of their export caters for a niche organic wool market they’ve built up over the last 15 years or so. “We pretty much export every kilo of organic wool that’s produced in New Zealand, and those growers enjoy a premium of anywhere between 50% to 100% compared to a non-certi ed organic farmer.” That market is restricted only by supply and Palle would be very happy to see more farmers make the transition to organic certi cation. Clearly, although wool in the current market is often treated as a by-product, for Bloch and Behrens it’s the sought-after result of quality transactions between dedicated farmers and customers who treat their products with the same respect as the animals its sourced from.
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