Small losses in Australia's wool price benchmark were eclipsed by news of the season's sales topping the $2 billion dollar mark nine weeks earlier than last season.
The Australian Wool Exchange has reported the value of wool sold mid April was $59 million ($1523 a bale), taking the season total to $2.017 million ($1602 a bale).
Australian Council of Wool Exporters and Processors executive director Peter Morgan said the early passing of the $2 billion mark was due to higher prices and a greater numbers of bales sold - 14.2 per cent more than over the same period in 2020-21.
However, AWEX reported that the Australian wool market continued its downward trend, with only the Melbourne auction values posting gains at the time of the $2 billion season surge.
"Although the market lost ground for the fifth consecutive week, there were some strong positive movements within certain sectors of the market. Compared to the previous season, the total amount of bales offered, continues to track higher. There have been 196,050 more bales put through the auction system compared to this time last year, an increase of 15.4pc," AWEX said.
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"There were different movements in the Merino fleece types within regions. In Sydney and Fremantle, the individual Micron Price Guides (MPGs) ranged between fully firm and a fall of 25 cents," AWEX said.
Melbourne however posted gains of between three and 61 cents and by the end of the series the positive and negative movements in the market had the net result of a two cent fall in the AWEX Eastern Market Indicator (EMI) to 1367 cents/kg clean.
"Currency continues to play a large role in the recent market fluctuations. Due to a weakening of the Australian dollar, when viewed in US dollar terms, the EMI recorded a larger fall, the EMI fell by US17 cents for the series, closing at US1020 cents," AWEX said.
"Although the EMI has now fallen for five weeks in a row, the overall fall over this period has not been significant. Since Week 36, the EMI has dropped by 46 cents, an average of just over nine cents per week."
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