It was then he decided something needed to change which has subsequently led to the launch of his start-up Fusca which has partnered with Wool Impact to develop a strong wool price indicator.
Mr Cosgrove has been involved in the wool industry for 12 years. His day job is business development manager (fibre products) at Carrfields New Zealand and he is also chairman of Campaign for Wool New Zealand.
It had been a "passion project" to use the data collected to gain better insight into the market and communicate that data back to the wool grower, Mr Cosgrove said.
There used to be a strong wool price indicator but that disappeared with the demise of the wool board, he said.
Taking a mathematical and analytical approach, it would provide a visible and consistent benchmark for the sector and allowed it to monitor the impact of work being undertaken to drive demand and value.
Fusca had the technology to develop a commercial data platform that would provide farmers and the wool supply chain with more detailed and accurate pricing data based on the weekly wool auction and export data.
It was working with Wool Impact - a collaboration between the Government and sheep sector partners under the Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures fund - and representatives from each stage of the domestic supply chain to develop the methodology for the indicator so it was robust to seasonal variation and gave "a high level view of the health of the industry".
Fusca’s platform would provide access to historical and up-to-date pricing information for all wool types sold and allow users to personalise reports.
Growers could load the exact type of wool they grew and then only view market reports on their wool type, seeing the trends and drivers for that type.
"That’ll be completely new and hopefully give growers a feeling of empowerment being able to see it through the lens of their business," Mr Cosgrove said.
"There are a lot of cool people trying to do cool things with wool but without a way to accurately track value, outside of total FOB value, it’s hard to really measure impact. We want farmers and wool traders to have full visibility and transparency of the prices for their wool types and the comparative discounts and premiums available," Mr Cosgrove said.
While awareness needed to be raised as to the value of wool as a natural fibre, there was also a need to better understand what the drivers for value were and be able to monitor those, to increase demand and value, he said.
There was no silver bullet for the beleaguered strong wool industry but, under the Campaign for Wool banner, the likes of communication, education and connecting with consumers was very important. Storytelling was something that had been missed in the past, he said.
He was excited about the launch of Fusca and what it could mean, both in its first iteration and what it could become. It was hoped the indicator would launch at the end of March and the first platform would be ready for the start of the new season in July.
ANZ’s latest Agri-Focus report said wool prices remained lacklustre and would need to "lift considerably" to contribute positively to farm profits.
While there were plenty of initiatives under development for new uses for wool, most were still some way off large-scale production and were yet to impact farm-gate prices.
