No-one is winning with the current fighting and absence of unity in the debate about the future of the wool industry, the chief executive of Romney New Zealand says.
John Bates said the dispute and bickering between the Wool Industry Network and United Wool Marketers Group was tainting the international image of wool while also making it impossible for farmers and the industry to hear and understand the facts.
"There is so much politics, egos, power and games-manship involved, it is very difficult to know where we are sitting," he said.
Mr Bates and Romney New Zealand were themselves involved in their own wool enhancement project, in which wool is supplied to a Nepalese carpet-maker and then returned for Romney New Zealand to market.
The project has been operating for a year.
Mr Bates said while it had not gone as well as planned, it was a "sideshow" compared to what was happening elsewhere in the wool industry.
"We would rather be part of the new [Wool] Company or work with Meat and Wool New Zealand, but the reality is we have been going for 12 months and we have talked a lot to the Wool Industry Network.
"The bottom line is you tell me how the new company is going to add value to [a] farmer's bottom line. It is all conjecture."
Romney New Zealand has spent $180,000 on the Nepal Project so far and Mr Bates confirmed it was seeking an extra $200,000 of working capital to see it through the next six months.
The could come from an application for $300,000 from Meat and Wool New Zealand and $20,000 from Trade and Enterprise New Zealand, funds from Romney Inc or breed clubs, support from membership or sales of carpets.
Its Greytown tourist shop, through which it sold rugs, has closed because of slow sales but a sales manager has been employed with a brief of developing corporate and large-volume rug-buying clients in New Zealand and Australia.
The United States market was also considered to have potential.
Mr Bates said the rug business had reached a stage where it needed to take a more commercial step and operate under a different business model.
But, beyond that, he called for unity within the wool industry.
"There is no up-side for anybody from what is happening at the moment."