Strong wool farmers may have a little more to look forward to, following Wools of New Zealand announcement that domestic retail demand for wool carpet has increased by 50 per cent.

“This rising demand means wool’s share of the carpet market has grown by more than 350,000 kilograms of wool”, said John McWhirter, chief executive of Wools of New Zealand (WNZ).

Photo: Willy's Flooring

Invercargill's Willy's Flooring manager Susan Williams said they had probably seen a 10% increase in woolen carpets going out the door.

It's a natural product and a very good insulator, but it's the whole green thing, she said.

Williams said younger customers, in their 30s and 40s, were now more aware.

They want to know at the end of the day, that it can go to landfill and will break down - it won't be there forever, she said.

While woolen carpets were more expensive, Williams said because most people had a farming background there was a preference to use wool.

Carpets and Drapes Fiordland's owner Shelley Morgan said she had also seen a rise in the popularity of woolen carpets, with now accounted for more than 30% of her carpet sales.

While a lot of it was based around loyalty to the farmers, there where also more options in wool now, she said.

"The suppliers are bringing out new options, new textures, new looks, so there is a wider range of choice."

"They have [also] improved the fade resistance and stain resistance in the wools," she said.

PGG Wrightson's South Island Wool Procurement manager Rob Cochrane said that while the volumes of wool going into domestic carpet production is small compared to export, it is starting to gain significance as New Zealand sheep numbers drop.

Exporting however remains challenging for strong wools.

"Transportation and shipping is very, very difficult" as a result of COVID, and was "just holding things up," said Cochrane.

He said the closure of a lot of Chinese cities, ports and [processing] factories due to COVID has also exasperated the whole problem.

"China still takes a large percentage (almost 50%) of New Zealand's strong wool clip and so that affects Southland directly."

However strong wools are also exported to the United States, United Kingdom and around 30 other European countries, he said.