Elders Primary Wool (EPW) chairman Stuart Chapman said his company had honoured an undertaking given to Agriculture Minister David Carter last year to refrain from public bickering and instead had been developing its Just Shorn strong wool brand and carpet markets in the United States.
Mr Chapman said the volume of wool handled by EPW had grown sharply in recent months and it had refused to be drawn into debate over the establishment of Wool Partners Co-operative.
The fruits of that work should become apparent this year he said, with the launch of its full range of Just Shorn-branded carpets and rugs through US flooring retail network, International Design Guild (IDG).
The first carpets went on sale in late October and Mr Chapman said Just Shorn branded products would be IDG's primary brand and marketing focus for this year, starting with a launch on the eve of the Surfaces flooring show in Las Vegas this month.
"Because of this, it will receive special marketing treatment. What will follow, we expect, is a focus on our wool in carpets and we hope for a boost of sales for this New Zealand branded carpet and therefore New Zealand Just Shorn wool."
He would not be drawn on the potential volume of wool the Just Shorn programme could absorb, but said they were already paying suppliers $1.40 a kg more than comparable auction prices for qualifying wool.
Mr Chapman said the Just Shorn programme showed a marketing strategy using New Zealand farming imagery to promote our natural, sustainable branded food and fibre products worked.
"It shows us markets are up for it at that higher end," he said.
The key was to back it up with validation and traceability, which EPW had incorporated into its wool, he said.
"That is what you require, and to be honest our programme would have failed without it."
Mr Chapman said the market response showed consumers were ready for products that were verifiable, natural, sustainable, healthy and quality.
"It is a shame sheep farmers had to wait until they were on their knees to see it happen."
Central Otago farmer Kate Menzies, from the 1620ha Cambrian Station, is joining EPW director Howie Gardner from South Otago at the Surfaces flooring fair.
Mrs Menzies featured in a video providing New Zealand farming imagery as part of the Just Shorn promotion, and said for the first time in her farming career she knew who bought her wool and where it ended up.
She said promoting New Zealand wool as natural and sustainable, and having that backed by being traceable to the grower, was positive.
