National Wool Declaration

How it operates

 

Wool growers voluntarily use this form to declare their wool to be:

NM = Never mulesed

CM = Ceased mulesing property

PR  = Mulesed with pain relief

ND = Not declared

At the brokers wool store the sale lots that have been declared are nominated at sampling and identified to the AWTA testing laboratory. These sale lots are then in turn identified in the auction sale catalogue and on the AWTA test certificate.

Auction buyers can then identify these declared lots prior to auction and make their decisions accordingly.

 

The NWD  – what it can achieve?

 

Identification of individual sale lots offered at auction that are voluntarily declared by growers.

Where multiple lots are aggregated to a processing batch and a ‘combined certificate’ is issued, the status of the individual lots will be shown.

 

Limitations of the NWD

 

* Only effective to the first point of sale.

* No trace back system involved that can give brands/retailers confidence or undertakings about origin.

* No chain of custody to ensure genuine Australian non-mulesed merino purchased at auction is not blended with mulesed wool or wool from other countries and then sold on with a new identity.

* It is a passive system: Farmers are unable to ensure the integrity of  their genuine non-mulesed wool is maintained and made available with full identity and traceability.

* A generic system with no individual or company taking commercial responsibility for the outcome.

* No ongoing audit capability.