Indian manufacturers will buy more wool as long as the international economy remains relatively stable, according to one visiting buyer.
Animal fibre specialist and yarn seller for Indian-based Natural Fantasy, Pravin Patel, New Delhi, was in Australia last week for the Sydney and Melbourne wool sales and said there was a steadily growing demand for quality woollen clothing for the increasingly affluent Indian, Nepalese and Bangladeshi populations.
The wool processing and garment manufacturing company, Natural Fantasy, imports 25 to 30 million tonnes of Australian wool a year.
It targets the fine and superfine wool types mostly for women's knitwear and blazers (in India) and to export a variety of finished products to Europe and the United States.
Mr Patel said demand for these wool types could increase by as much as 10 per cent in the next few years.
Recent increases in Australian wool prices had been offest by increasing the percentage of blending with synthetic products, but he said there was little change to the region's total wool imports, thanks to its growing economies.
Mr Patel was also representing Italian spinners who traded yarn with India and its neighbouring countries and said he was after 18-micron wool for the Italian processor market, which after being made into clothes in India, was sold into the high-end apparel markets of Europe and the US.
He was at last Thursday's Yennora wool sale, with woolgrower and Australian Wool Innovation board member, Wal Merriman, Merryville stud, Boorowa, who was offering his first line of wool under the Better Choices brand, 32 bales shorn from sheep mulesed with the aid of anesthetic.
Mr Patel said mulesing was not a big issue for his clients.
"Ninety eight or 95 per cent of our users don't worry about mulesed or non-mulesed wool, " he said, which gave his company open slather when buying.
Clients did include companies such as the European-based Marks and Spencer, and a number of large Italian mills which sold yarn back to India.
He said Natural Fantasy's top-end processing customers used at least 95pc wool, so if they stopped using Australian wool they couldn't use their machines due to the lack of supply elsewhere.
Nevertheless, more wool is expected to hit the Australian market with the Better Choices assurance.
Mr Merriman, who has been using Trisolfen at mulesing for the past two years, said "Merryville" expected to supply 230 bales of Better Choices-branded wool this year, and as much as 650 bales as the whole flock comes under the system.
He said this week's offering had sold above the market for their type, but big lines of fleece wool were needed to identify any premiums.
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