Australian Wool Innovation (AWI) Chairman Jock Laurie has told today’s Annual General Meeting in Sydney that AWI remains focused on building demand for wool during challenging economic circumstances internationally.
AWI is owned by Australian woolgrowers and is the industry’s not-for-profit research, development and marketing company. It is also the owner of the iconic Woolmark brand.
“Shearer training remains the number one issue for woolgrowers. From a board polnt of view we do a lot of investment in regard to continue to build demand for wool to create more competition in the marketplace and on the on-farm level to make sure we are doing research and development which is trying to minimise the cost of production as much as we can”.
He also recognised that many growers were affected by the severe damage of the bushfires in Western Australia last year and right now the devastating impact of flooding across Eastern Australia.
“It is quite staggering and it is really important that as a company we understand those issues and do whatever we can to help people through that process.”
Mr Laurie also highlighted the growing importance on traceability and sustainability for both woolgrowers and consumers.
“AWI is ahead of the game on traceability. And we a very strong position to take it forward. A lot of the traceability stuff was developed by Wool Q. Traceability and sustainability is absolutely critical,” Mr Laurie told the meeting,
AWI Chief Executive Officer John Roberts told the meeting that a year ago there were plenty of challenges for the wool industry including casualisation, geopolitical tensions, and a desperate shortage of shearers, now there are even more.
“12 months on these challenges mostly remain and we have a number of additional factors to contend with including the war in the Ukraine and the skyrocketing energy price that it brings, domestic floods causing widespread damage across most of the eastern states, the threat of FMD, the rampant spread of barbers pole worm, unyielding demand for provenance and traceability and the push for sustainability.
And whilst the threat of COVID-19 may have subsided the economic impost it has caused globally is becoming a reality contributing to what is commonly becoming known as recession anxiety.
Now, although this list has not got any shorter, I can say with confidence that AWI has never been better prepared to take on these challenges and in many cases transition them into real opportunities.
- We have a strong, cohesive and supportive board who communicate and listen to both stakeholders and AWI staff.
- We have a new strategic plan that has been developed with real input industry.
- We are delivering bold and targeted projects in marketing, on and off farm.
- We are developing our measurement and evaluation framework to allow us to report on the company’s achievements with clear and tangible outputs & outcomes
- Our consultation structures are open and inclusive which affords us highly valuable input and feedback from which to learn and evolve as a company
- Underpinning all this and allowing us to deliver is a highly cohesive and dedicated working team. The good people in AWI and The Woolmark Company are your greatest asset, and I am privileged and humbled to lead and serve them in my capacity as CEO.
I am proud to be working in AWI. Australia is the largest grower of apparel wool in the world, and we set the benchmark in terms of animal husbandry, quality, preparation & testing standards and we own a logo (the Woolmark Logo) that can capture all these attributes and more as we transition the company to take advantage of a rapidly evolving world”.
Australian Wool Innovation holds director elections every two years, the last director election was in 2021 and the next director election will be in 2023.
