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Australia : China Set to Become Growth Engine for Wool |
2003-8-12
According to the Woolmark Company managing director David Conners, China is set to become the major engine room of growth to help sustain the Australian wool market.
Mr Conners told a West Australian Farmers wool council meeting recently that, despite the SARS crisis virtually shutting down wool production overnight, the Chinese economy would rebound strongly.
"There are big consumer markets emerging in China despite SARS," he said.
"It is going to come back gangbusters. "It is emerging as a very sophisticated consumer driven society." He said the Chinese economy was a monolith with a mind of its own and the best Australian woolgrowers could hope for was to go along for the ride.
"If you supply them what they want at a reasonable price, when they want it, you haven''t got a problem," Mr Conners said.
Mr Conners said the Chinese were investing big money in the wool textile sector, with the support of the government."It''s government-driven and that''s why it''s so powerful," he said.Mr Conners, who is based in Europe, said countries including Germany, Italy and France had just had their worst spring retail season in 30 years and called the past year an economic nightmare.
He said the global wool textile and fibre sectors had shrunk by 40pc over the past decade.But the volume of Australian 19-micron wool and finer had doubled - and the value has also increased.
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