Industry partners in New Zealand have come together to develop and launch an independent online wool trading platform.

Called Natural Fiber Exchange (NFX), it draws on international models as an open access, independent trading platform and represents a cross section of the wool market. It is pro-competitive, transparent and encourages fair discovery of prices for the fiber products traded between buyers and sellers.

Buyers can compare all prices in real time with all parcels of wool available simultaneously over multiple rounds of bidding. An integral feature of the platform is as a tool to provide an objective reference point from the perspective of both buyers and sellers.

Online trading is playing an increasingly important role in international commodity markets. This platform is a natural evolution towards developing the most efficient means of selling significant volumes of wool.

Meanwhile farmer-to-merchant wool trading is set to kick into gear in the coming weeks, as shearing will commence on sheep farms across the country. However – like last year – the outlook for prices remains difficult.

Prices are down significantly on the prices achieved during 2016 and 2015. Buyers from China are not sourcing wool from Europe.

There has been no great increase in supplies just yet this year – despite the fine weather.