In his recent Daily Telegraph column, Prince Charles expressed his support of the wool industry ahead of this week’s Campaign for Wool’s tour of Scotland.

Revival

The Prince has been actively involved in the promotion of wool manufacturers and farmers with the Campaign for Wool for the last seven years. He wrote in his column that it was necessary for him to aid the industry as it was “under severe financial pressure, with some receiving less for their wool than the cost of shearing their sheep”.

At that time the industry was struggling because clothing and textile manufacturers were using less wool in favour of synthetic fibres.

Prince Charles is hosting the conference and made a plea in his column for the world to embrace a “seemingly miraculous” natural fibre: wool.

Quality

The Prince conducted a rather unusual test to demonstrate the qualities that wool has that suits the modern world perfectly – especially its biodegradability.

In his test, Prince Charles buried two jerseys in a flower bed at Clarence House – one made out of wool and the other made up of synthetic fibre.

Six months later the Prince returned to find the synthetic product still in tack whilst the woollen garment had “quietly and usefully biodegraded itself away to nothing”.

Next, the Prince set fire to both materials and reported that “synthetic jerseys produced a dramatic and disconcerting blaze, while their woollen counterparts merely smouldered in relative safety”.

Manufacturing

Standard Wool is one of the largest buyers of British wool in the UK and has manufacturing plants in West Yorkshire, as well as operations in Chile, New Zealand and China.

Standard Wool uses natural products in the production of its wool whereas fossil fuels are required to make synthetic materials.

In comparison to when he first joined the Campaign for Wool, Prince Charles believes the economics of the industry have improved greatly, with wool prices rising by as much as 60% in the UK and New Zealand and by more than 35% in Australia and South Africa.

Charles adds that wool is the fibre of the future because it is “versatile, sustainable, renewable and natural”.

Ending on an optimistic note, he observes that “today’s environmentally aware consumers do seem to be seeking out quality and durability in fashion, lifestyle and interiors.

“And that is exactly what wool provides.”

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