Australian Wool Innovation (AWI) chief executive Stuart McCullough has vowed ownership of the highly publicised Wool Exchange Portal (WEP) will not fall in the “wrong hands of the highest bidder”.
The Wool Selling System Review (WSSR) final report revealed, post establishment of the WEP business plan later this year, the AWI owned intellectual capital of the WEP could be sold.
The online portal would act as a central point in the market and provide price transparency at the wool grower level across all selling avenues to market.
The idea has been compared to Profarmer Australia’s price discovery services, but would also include brokers’ services, comparisons of live and electronic selling platforms and live stream open cry auctions.
A steering group made up of Australian Wool Exchange (AWEX), Australian Wool Testing Authority (AWTA) and AWI representatives will be established by June and will advise on the sale of the WEP.
The report stated the intellectual capital generated from the steering committee would be owned by AWI on behalf of growers following the research and development of the WEP which is expected to be completed by December 2016.
“The new owner of the WEP will determine who will be its operator,” the WSSR report stated.
The panel highlighted AWEX and AWTA as potential operators of the WEP, either in partnership or by virtue of recommended organisational merge.
“We are not doing this for it to end up in the wrong hands of the highest bidder,” Mr McCullough said.
“Who we sell the intellectual capital to or if we sell this platform depends on whether we develop it, secondly who pays for the development and thirdly if it is in the best interest of the wool growers.”
However, Mr McCullough said AWI hoped to retain majority control of the system and that it was “dangerous” to speculate who might own the WEP.
“We will not do anything that has a detrimental effect on woolgrowers - we will make sure it improved the result for woolgrowers,” he said.
“I think we’ve got to step this on - I’m determined this document doesn’t become a dust collector.”
AWI have campaigned support for the WEP from the banking industry, Federal Government, institutions, brokers and exporters.
“We’re not obsessed with owning this 100per cent - I don’t think the board envisaged owning this outright,” Mr McCullough said.
“We just simply want to control it so woolgrowers get the best outcome and just because you don’t own the whole thing doesn’t mean you don’t control it.”
