Wool advocate remains optimistic
Lawrence Paskell is passionate about the wool industry, but a lot needs to be done to lift it out of the doldrums. Diane Bishop talks to him about 40 years in the wool business.
Wool will have its day in the sun again.
That’s according to Lawrence Paskell who hopes that day will come sooner rather than later.
The 56-year-old PGG Wrightson wool representative said strong wool prices were the lowest they’d ever been.
‘‘In the early days wool made up 50 per cent of a farm’s income and lamb was worth hardly anything, but it’s all turned around.
‘‘It’s a sad indictment on our industry,’’ Lawrence said.
Lawrence believes wool should be worth $5 to $7 a kilogram – the same as lamb – not $2.20/kg.
‘‘Then we would see sheep farming compete with other land uses such as dairying.’’
He believes the key to lifting wool prices is better promotion and finding new uses and embracing new technology.
‘‘We also need to tell our sustainability story better.’’
Lawrence has chalked up 40 years in the wool industry working for PGG Wrightson Wool and its predecessors in Invercargill.
‘‘Wool has always fascinated me – it’s such a great product.’’
Lawrence spends a lot of his time on the road visiting clients mainly in western and northern Southland, but he also has some key clients in the Wyndham and Tokanui areas.
He also has clients as far away as Glenorchy and on the Crown Range.
Lawrence has been in the game that long that he’s now dealing with the second, and in some cases third, generation of clients.
On the home front he’s supported by his partner Jude Freeman who fields a lot of his phone calls.
His late father Ron, a contract presser, introduced 15-year-old Lawrence to the wool industry in the late 1970s.
‘‘Dad got me my first school holiday job labouring in the wool store.’’
Lawrence went back to school to do School Certificate, but in December 1978 was offered a fulltime job in the Wrightson NMA wool store.
He started under the guidance of Eddie Pannett, followed by Tom Jones and then Frank Garthwaite, the latter of which was his boss for many years.
Lawrence initially spent his days labouring in the wool store before moving into the fleece and oddments division.
He describes those early days in the wool industry as particularly labour intensive.
‘‘Everything was done with barrows and hooks – there were no forklifts to move bales around.
‘‘And there were no computers, everything was done on hard copy by hand,’’ Lawrence said.
In 1981 Lawrence was offered the opportunity to go Lincoln University and complete a Wool Certificate course.
The course gave him a good grounding in the technical aspects of the wool industry. ‘‘It was a very good course. ‘‘It gave me a good grounding in everything from the different breeds of sheep to the manufacturing side of the business.’’
The mid 1980s was a revolutionary time for the wool industry with the introduction of grab