Increased demand for wool apparel in western european markets: effect on Australian wool auctions

The need for marketing activities in retail markets for wool apparel is a current and reoccurring industry debate. This paper reports on the impact of these activities, as a change of demand for pure wool apparels at retail, on the price and quantity of raw wool cleared through Australian wool auctions. The analysis uses a world wool trade model developed by the Department of Agriculture Western Australian and the University of Western Australia which tracks global flows of wool and wool products from production to retail in 10 regional markets. The impact of demand is presented for selected wool garments in particular countries. The change in demand is applied as a shock to the equilibrium in the model. When the equilibrium is restored, changes in price and quantity at each processing stage and in each raw wool production region are simulated