Shearer shortage solution sought to meet demand

[Nergal]

 

SOLVING a shortage of shearers has become the curly question of the State’s wool boom. But the industry’s peak body says jetting in shearers from the UK to clip sheep on farms across WA during peak times could be the answer.

The State is enjoying a wool boom not seen since the hey days of the 1980s, thanks to surging demand from China combined with drought affecting wool producers in the Eastern States.

The strong demand, combined with tight supply, sent the benchmark wool price soaring above $20/kg for the first time this month, up from $13 in recent years and putting a value on WA’s annual wool clip of more than $1 billion.

The high prices mean wool producers are lifting stock levels, while uncertainty over the live export trade meant thousands more sheep may need shearing.

But the WA Shearing Industry Association is warning the State doesn’t have enough shearers to cope with the demand during the two peak seasons — one starting now and running through to October and a second peak from January to April.

Association president and Spencer Shearing owner Darren Spencer, who runs a team of up to 40 shearers based at Lake Grace, said the State had about 100 shearing contractors employing about 1000 full-time shearers.

“But we need more,” he said. “We’re coming into a real peak time now and the numbers of shearers are just not there.”

Mr Spencer said the UK had a special visa that allowed Australian workers to jet in for the peak shearing season, but there was no reciprocal arrangement.

The association met WA Agriculture Minister Alannah MacTiernan this week to discuss the shearing shortage and enlist her help to lobby the Federal Government for changes to workers’ visas.