Wool stocks are rotting in sheep farmers’ attics. Loss of love, ridiculous prices or Covid: the material is no longer finding buyers.
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How to reconnect with French wool? While France has 5.4 million animals which produce around 10,100 tonnes of wool each year, only 4% of this fleece is recycled. Result: wool stocks are piling up on farms. On the floor of the attic of Sylvain Rey, sheep breeder in Maillard in Allier: three curons, large burlap bags filled with wool. “For now, there are no takers. No one anywhere,” said the man who is also president of the department’s sheep farmers’ union.
In total, 185 kilos of fleeces have been piled up since the last shearing and have not found a buyer. And even if Sylvain Rey manages to sell his wool, it will be for a ridiculous price of 0.10 euros per kilo instead of 1.20 euros ten years ago.
When it comes time to shear his 85 sheep, he feels like he is too. “To make 2.5 kilos of fleece, I will hire a shearer. The latter will charge me between 2 and 3 euros per animal. Then, there is a catcher. I will pay this gentleman roughly around 0.90 euros per animal, so it starts to be substantial. And if you make the connection between the quantity of wool that I will recover, compared to the sale price, the wool has become a burden for my farm”, deplores the breeder.
“About twenty years ago, there was a saying that said ‘Wool allows you to pay the shearer, the catcher, the treatments for the sheep. And what’s more, there’s something left over for the farmer’. Today, that’s no longer the case at all.”
Sylvain Rey, sheep breederto franceinfo
Over the years, the lack of love for wool, replaced by other materials such as cotton or plastic, has led to a deindustrialization of the sector. For example, there is now only one washing unit left in Haute-Loire. Then the Covid crisis added to the mix, causing prices to plummet and exports to China to dwindle.
Consequence: stocks of wool accumulate among breeders who cannot even destroy it, because it is classified in category three by ANSES (National Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety) , that is to say considered a dangerous product and even an animal by-product by the European Union.
“Wool is a virtuous product, it is natural and grows continuously. It is a noble, inexhaustible product. So it is a product that needs to regain all its nobility in its use by ordinary mortals”, assures Sylvain Rey.
His way of giving it back its value is to sell it to Geralde, his neighbor: 1.50 euros per kilo of wool from his “Île-de-France” breed of animals which can be used for spinning. “This is a mix of Sylvain’s wool with alpaca and with Angora wool which is the brown one, which I found on Leboncoin and which I bought in bulk. A hat, mittens, that’s all. I made the little set”, shows Gerarlde.
“This matter, it’s not just hot. This matter, it’s alive. It’s real.”
Gerarlde, neighbor of the breederto franceinfo
In the past, Geralde also used wool to insulate a small workshop. “We packed the wool like this, without anything else. And we packed it very, very, very hard and we went up to the ceiling like this. The workshop has been done for three years now and we realize that the insulation is still there, and that it is still very active.”defends Gerarlde.
In textiles, it can also be used to make mattresses. In agriculture, to make compost or mulch. So if local initiatives exist in France, for example these small short circuits or cooperatives to revalue it, they are insufficient to revive the sector.
The Tricolore collective, an association with an inter-professional vocation, composed a roadmap for the government on May 16, with seven recommendations and potential promising markets for French wool. For example, 60 million square meters of biosourced insulation could be produced by 2025. But to achieve this, we must now act collectively.
“If we all align ourselves in this sector, which is quite long since it obviously starts with breeding, but without the processing know-how, without the market behind the brands, the development and distribution capacity, there will be no possibility of building a sector”, campaigner Pascal Gautrand, the general delegate of the collective.
“We must succeed in getting our violins in harmony, in bringing together professions which today do not necessarily speak to each other, do not know each other very well and which nevertheless will undoubtedly be able to find viable and sustainable solutions for this sector.”
Pascal Gautrand, general delegate of Tricolorat franceinfo
By 2040, the objective is to achieve fully valued production, for income for breeders estimated at 8.3 million euros, projects the collective’s report.