This pressure takes the form of a new position paper put forward by sixteen powerful organisations such as the American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA), The Association of European Fashion Retailers (AEDT), British Retail Consortium (BRC), Canadian Apparel Federation (CAF), Foreign Trade Association (FTA), National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO), National Retail Federation (NRF) and the Nordic Initiative Clean and Ethical (NICE) among others.

The industry group says “wool apparel retailers and brands in North America and Europe reaffirm their goal that the Australian wool industry expeditiously identify and adopt viable alternatives to surgical mulesing.

“We encourage the Australian wool industry and the Australian federal and state governments to devote to these efforts a portion of any additional financial resources derived from the current high price of wool.”