LONDON — Even as the U.K. entered its third national lockdown this week to stop the spread of a mutant strain of the coronavirus, the wool industry is hoping the business can return to some form of normality by the third quarter of 2021.
As more people began to work from home, demand for domestic carpet increased quite dramatically, but not enough to compensate for the lack of business in the contract sector, Ackroyd noted. “The fine wool price has stabilized. It was at its highest in 2019 for 20 Australian dollars per kilo. The price dropped down to nine Australian dollars per kilo, but then we saw things coming back, slowly,” he said. “We have to attribute most of this to demand from China. Between 75 to 80 percent of the merino wool is primarily processed in China. They have been buying quite a large amount.”