UPDATE: Lempriere Australia has bought the world's finest wool bale ever offered at auction after the 100 kilogram bale was passed in at $1700 per kg.
It was almost $1000 per kg less than Lempriere paid for a fine wool bale in 2008.
IT WAS the finest merino wool bale to ever go to auction, but even so it couldn't lift the spirits of the Australian wool industry.
The 11.4 micron ultra-fine wool bale, from Victorian producer Pyrenees Park, was passed in yesterday at $1700 a kilogram. If it had sold, it would have been the highest price paid at auction for wool since June 2008, before the market tumbled as the global financial crisis set in, according to The Australian Financial Review.
The 100 kilogram bale was expected to garner the attention of the world's leading fabric manufacturers, and Pyrenees Park owners Rob, Pamela and Brad Sandlant, had hoped to secure $2000 to $3000 a kilogram.
Landmark-Jackson superfine wool specialist Ted Wilson was locked in negotiations last night with Lempriere, which sources wool for the world's leading fashion houses.
In 2008, Lempriere paid $2690 a kilogram for a 11.6 micron bale from southern NSW, on behalf of Indian suit manufacturer Raymond.
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