Elders this week held its much-anticipated online auction of unmulesed wool but relative to last week’s market it failed to excite.

The online sale of 2672 bales included 1214 bales of non-mulesed wool and 458 bales of wool from properties that have ceased mulesing.

Most buyers quoted the market unchanged in the sellers’ favour on better-style wools, according to Elders, with the Australian Wool Exchange (AWEX) quoting the sale as cheaper in a continuation of the market’s downward trend of the past few weeks.

Prices topped at 1563 cents a kilogram (clean) for a line of unmulesed 14.9 micron weaner wool, 63mm in length and a staple strength of 44 Newtons, yielding 70.4 per cent.

But a 21.1 micron line of wool – measuring 68mm for length and 58 Newton staple strength – which sold for 938c – offered growers more hope, achieving 97c more than last week’s 21 micron indicator price.

Lots from non-mulesed wool achieved a 78pc clearance while wool from properties that had ceased mulesing had a 67pc clearance.

WoolProducers president Don Hamblin praised the initiative of the sale and said he hoped future sales would deliver a premium to sellers.

“It was a good first and the right thing to do,” Mr Hamblin said.

“Hopefully we will see premiums develop as mills aggregate unmulesed wool lots in the future.”

Elders general manager wool Mark Rodda said while the sale did not deliver the substantial premium many had hoped for, it was far from a failure.

On the plus side they had been able to offer a commercial quantity of wool and had attracted a variety of buyers to log on for the sale, Mr Rodda said.

“We had a lot of interest and I expected stronger demand but a number of buyers put together two or three containers and we will be having another go on the last Monday in June,” he said.

While The Merino Company had gone down the track of marketing similar wools together to gain a premium price for unmulesed wool, Mr Rodda said Elders believed the auction system maximised competition.

Earlier this year Mr Rodda hoped unmulesed wool could deliver at least a 10 to 20c/kg premium to cover the cost of the extra management that went into producing the fibre on farm.

“We have an obligation to identify wool from non-mulesed sheep, and properties that have ceased mulesing, to our overseas retailers,” he said.

“If we don’t, we fear that the wool industry could potentially lose these markets for ever.”

Elders said a significant quantity of lots were sold after the sale at grower reserves.

About 30 potential buyers logged onto the sale with 15 actively participating . Major buyers included GrainCorp, Lempriere Australia, Chargeurs Wool, Kataytex and ABB Wool.

International buyer Zhejiang Zhongxin Textile Co Ltd, from China, also supported the sale.

Zhongxin bought a container of wool from non-mulesed sheep in response to consumer interest.

“This auction was a good opportunity for our mill to start to meet the inquiry that we are receiving from our customers,” company spokeswoman Madam Wu said.