IRELAND has three times as many sheep as people and one of the largest wool yields in Europe. Yet most of the wool is shipped to Bradford in England because it is not a recognised EU "agricultural product".
In fact, rural economies throughout the community could benefit by an EU "woolmark", the Fianna Fail MEP, Mr Liam Hyland, told the European Parliament in Strasbourg yesterday. European wool was worth an estimated £270 million in 1994.
Presenting the parliament's first report on the sector, Mr Hyland said the European - and world - wool market is dominated by Australia and New Zealand. Within the EU, there is enormous wastage and a general failure to recognise the natural product's value.
Wool is often burned after shearing, there are storage problems, and a general "lack of interest, and resignation by sheep farmers faced with rock bottom prices, regardless of quality", the report says. Ireland, with 20 million kilos annually in untreated wool, is the fourth largest producer after Britain, Spain and France.
Quality of wool had been affected by the drive to produce food. Cross breeding, carried out in recent decades to improve lamb meat, had led to a general "impoverishment" and diversity of genetic stock. Wool accounts for only 5 per cent of the cost of a pullover, the report notes.
Small enterprises able to cope with diverse wool types in limited quantities still handled home yields. However, most wool processed in Europe comes from Australia and New Zealand, the report continues. Not only a cultural and artistic tradition, but also technology and knowledge acquired over centuries is endangered, it says.
In Italy, an organisation to improve availability of natural Italian textile fibres was set up by the wool industry and sheep farmers' unions six years ago. It held an international conference in 1994 and called on the EU to recognise wool as an agricultural product and provide structural aid, the Hyland report says.
If adopted, the report will lead to a revival of a sustainable EU wool industry, based on the production of European sheep farmers. Mr Hyland, who prepared the report in consultation with producers, processors and wool promotional organisations across Europe, said he was pleased with the positive reaction from the European Parliament.
"There are 100 million sheep in Europe but no specific programme to make the most of them, and no European quality woolmark, Mr Hyland said in Strasbourg. It was shocking that almost the entire Irish wool stock was exported to Bradford.
