Portugal a new player in wool supply chain

As the audience was told at the recent Fox and Lillie Corowa wool store opening, Portugal is also an emerging destination for Australian wool for mid-stage, said guest speaker Julie Davies.

Julie Davies, general manager, processing innovation and education extension at Australian Wool Innovation, said once those in the industry were committed to processing wool, and producing woollen products, they became dedicated and stayed in it for the long haul.

Ms Davies said Portugal is manufacturing wool products including yarns, fabrics and garments, but there is no early-stage processing such as scouring and top making.

Portugal is manufacturing a wide range of products from 15 to 28 micron Australian wool, including woven products such as fabrics for suits, jackets, shirts and trousers, and knitwear such as jumpers, vests, and cardigans.

Portugal is also manufacturing circular fabrics for next-to-skin base layers including t-shirts, leggings, and underwear, mid-layer fabric for hoodies and sweaters, and outerwear jackets with pure wool and wool blends with lyocell, cotton, and polyamide for sports, outdoor, casual, lounge wear markets.

Home textile products including bed linens, covers, bedspread, throws, blankets, and curtains are produced by Portugal using pure wool and wool/cotton blends while it is also manufacturing a rich portfolio of yarn compositions and types with advanced spinning facilities to produce ring spun, compact, open end, siro spun, vortex/air jet yarns.

Yarn compositions include pure wool and wool blended with lyocell, cotton, silk and synthetic fibres.

"So we have very solid partnerships throughout the world with China, India, Italy - and now Portugal, which is a very interesting market for us," Ms Davies said.

"Post COVID, European brands have looked at alternate supply chain routes to source product closer to home and Portugal has emerged as a very strong producer of wool circular knit and weave producers.

"Portugal has great potential as many European brands are demanding items made nearby.

"How great the potential is dependent on how competitive pricing is in Portugal compared to other locations in Europe and Asia."

She said in Asia, Vietnam had also taken off after about a decade of working with AWI and was now thriving.

"We think all of these developments are encouraging for the wool industry," Ms Davies said.

These initiatives are backed by AWI, with its staff - such as Ms Davies - working through the global supply chain directly with early stage processors, spinners, knitters, weavers, dyers and finishers to innovate process and product developments and support production commercialisation.

To support her role, Ms Davies said AWI had 16 technical managers based globally and working for the woolgrowers in places like China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, India, Italy, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, America, Portugal and Hong Kong.

"These technical team members come to AWI with absolute industry expertise in their individual line of experience and knowledge, whether it is spinning, dyeing or knitting," she said.

"The diversity within our team really enables us to penetrate the industry to innovate product through all aspects, not just in fashion and design."

Ms Davies said the role of the technical team is to be closely connected with the trade, keeping it updated with new technologies and processing, and understand where the market trends are going.

"We leverage those collaborations and work with them tightly and push those through to promotion at different trade shows that we exhibit at globally, and through regional product development centres," she said.

"We are constantly educating and promoting, doing a lot of work with retailers and brands around the world.

"We know there is a shift towards sustainable processes, so we are combating the synthetics industry.

"We are being approached by more brands globally who sometimes have never used wool before but want to introduce wool to their collections - sports outdoor brands like Adidas, Nike - we are working with those brands to position wool into their collections as a more sustainable fibre."

Ms Davies said the global consumer was focused on sustainability, especially in Europe where sustainable practices cover many processes.