Merino grower best in NZ – again!

April 23, 2009

Merino grower best in NZ – again!

South Canterbury merino farmers Barrie and Yvonne Payne have won a prestigious international award presented by the world’s biggest purchaser of fine wools – for the fourth year in a row.

Last year the Paynes produced a single bale of very fine 11.8 micron merino wool that was purchased by Italian fabric weaving company Loro Piana for $2,950 per kilogram clean.

It was the highest price paid by the company to any New Zealand producer for a single bale and has won the Loro Piana Record Bale Award for New Zealand.

The finer the wool the better it is for turning in to high quality cloth and the higher the price it fetches. The Paynes’ wool will eventually find its way in to just a few dozen lengths of suiting fabric or enough to make about 50 high quality men’s suits.

And in a nice twist to the win by the Paynes, Mr Pier-Luigi Loro Piana, the president of Loro Piana, has been presented with an Honorary Order of Merit by New Zealand for his services to the merino industry here.

Mr Loro Piana has been buying New Zealand merino wool since 1996 and was the first Italian weaver to directly contract substantial volumes breaking away from the wool auction system to form two to three year contracts.

New Zealand and Australia are the globe’s top producers of fine quality merino wool and Mr Loro Piana’s company created the annual Loro Piana Record Bale Award to encourage producers in each country to strive for increasingly higher quality wool.

Back in 1998, Mr Loro Piana was the first Italian weaver to directly contract substantial volumes of New Zealand merino wool and to date more than 600,000kg of greasy wool has gone in to the Loro Piana Zelander® and Storm System Zelander® fabric ranges.

Loro Piana produces the Zelander range of fabrics made from New Zealand merino wool which is woven in to quality garments marketed at the top end of high fashion world-wide.

The Paynes have now won the New Zealand trophy four years in a row and have been presented with their award at a ceremony in Beijing today (Thurs. Apr. 23).

At their 177ha station Visulea, the Paynes farm more than 3,000 merino, 1,000 of which are wool-producing wethers (castrated males).

“Merino is such a lovely wool and it really gives us a buzz that we’re producing some of the world’s best wool for one of the world’s leading fabric makers,” Yvonne Payne says. “It’s quite humbling to be judged the best in New Zealand four years in a row.”

The New Zealand Merino Company (NZM) chief executive John Brakenridge says the double celebration is fitting considering the huge contribution both Mr Loro Piana and the Paynes have made to the New Zealand merino industry.

“Italy’s a huge market for us and Mr Loro Piana has been a huge supporter of our industry. The contract system Loro Piana works with has big benefits for growers in that it stabilises prices and creates surety of quality and supply for the customer.

“Fineness is a chief consideration when measuring quality in merino wool and with the average human hair at around 60 microns the Paynes are producing wool fibres about five times smaller.

“The relationship with Mr Loro Piana is rewarding for New Zealand merino growers and is founded on respect for each other’s knowledge in merino production and processing.”

Ends

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