TIPS_Regional_Wool_Value_Chain_December_

The Lesotho National Wool and Mohair Growers Association (NWMGA) is the governing body, looking after the interests of the farmers, while the Ministry of Small Business and Marketing, and the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security set the agricultural marketing policies. [...] The total sales of the Merino wool have been rising from 2009/10 until the decline in the 2014/15 season due to the slightly stronger rand and the decline in demand in the same year. [...] Further, the prices and sales of wool took a knock in the 2019/20 season due the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease that occurred in the Limpopo province between February and May, 2019 and led to the ban of South Africa’s wool in China during the same period. [...] Regulation In terms of governance, the Wool Forum is the regulatory and the official policy-making body in the in the South African wool industry. [...] The localisation policy was meant to cut these logistics fees and brokerage fees in order to increase the earnings of local farmers; to strengthen the value chains in the wool and mohair industry; to reduce 11 % share the dominance of the South African brokers and reliance on South African markets; and to create employment and improve the skills base in the sector as well as grow tax revenues in t.