Wool auction price highest for 20 years

Wool is the latest farm commodity to reflect rising world prices with the British Wool Marketing Board chairman, Frank Langrish, commenting that the prices now being bid at auction were the best they had been for 20 years.

He was speaking after the latest electronic auction this week where an average price of 157.05p per kg was realised with a clearance at 99 per cent on 1.66 million kgs of wool.

Langrish said: "The auction system shows its true worth in a thriving market because the best price is always achieved in a competitive environment."

There have been a number of reasons which have contributed to the sudden change in wool's fortunes. Sheep numbers across the world have reduced significantly - by 40 per cent in the UK since 2000 - and so there is a much reduced level of wool available to the textile industry.