Experiences with an Offshore Scour

Dear Trish,

You asked me to relate my experiences in using the New Zealand scouring facility, and while this experience is far from over, it has been almost too eventful already.

My story started back in September 2007 when my Angora goats were shorn. I planned to combine the kid mohair from this clip and send it off to CSIRO Geelong, for scouring and from there, onto my regular spinner for processing into yarn. I duly rang CSIRO and asked for a quote on scouring which was provided without qualification, despite the fact that I had already heard rumours about its possible closure. Feeling reassured, I sent my fleece samples to a testing house, so that I could accurately match up fleeces. Once the results were returned, I classed out the fleeces required and weighed the final amount. All this took about a month. Once I had my final weight of fibre ready to go, I contacted CSIRO again, only to be told, sorry we’re closing ! You can imagine how I felt !

I then sought help from my spinner, did he know of anyone else (close at hand preferably) who could do my scouring? He said he would try to help but sadly the subsequent answer was negative, mainly due to the quantity involved being less than the required 500 kgs demanded by larger scale scouring operations. This left me with the only option of shipping my mohair to AgResearch in Christchurch, New Zealand (which appears to be the only scour in Asia willing to scour small lots of non-sheep fibre), then shipping the scoured fibre to another location for spinning (if I was to use my regular spinner which I wished to do for several reasons) and then ship it home again ! Not exactly the most cost effective way to go about things, particularly as the first leg involved shipping large quantities of dirt and grease still contained in the fibre.

Christmas came and went and I was still collecting information and negotiating with

It was all very stressful and I felt exhausted by the time I finally left my fibre at the transport depot in early January. However I digress. I have forgotten to regale you with my &quo;enjoyable&quo; experience with AQIS. I have to say that AgResearch staff were more than helpful in assisting me put together the correct paperwork in the required format, to clear the first quarantine hurdle. However they figured without the quirky and somewhat inconsistent application of the rules by AQIS for doing such things. I duly completed the AQIS form (in triplicate of course) in exactly the same way that had been done for a previous consignment to AgResearch and which had managed to get there unscathed. Sadly AQIS didn't like the way the form had been filled out, so I had to sit in their office at Tullamarine and fill it in again. (I had been rather nervous about the handwritten form as I had been warned by AgResearch that this may not be acceptable. However as I (and most people these days) don't have a handy typewriter, there was no other way to complete this rather antiquated form. As it turned out, the handwriting passed muster at AQIS, however the second form was also rejected as I had failed to state that the fibre had not come from dead animals ! I thought I was saying where it had come from, NOT what it hadn't come from, but I was wrong. Form filling a third time to present for vetting. Nervous wait. Somehow in the conversation across the desk, the AQIS operative discovered that I was shipping, not flying the fibre out of the country. At this, she told me I couldn't have it signed for another 24 hours, despite the fact that the signee was on the premises. Their rule is that airfreight gets signed off immediately, but shipping freight has to wait 24 hours at least. No reasons given. I was told to go away and come back the next day. I fully expected another glitch the follow day, but was amazed to find my signed form ready to go.

Shipping went smoothly and luckily the paper work seemed to satisfy MAF (New Zealand version of AQIS) so my fibre duly arrived at AgResearch. However there it has been sitting ever since, still waiting to be scoured! After a polite wait, I enquired about the delay. I was informed that as they did not have 500 kgs to scour they were not going to start up the scour. OK this was written into their contract, but I assumed (foolishly) that they would have a reasonable throughput and that I wouldn't have to wait long for sufficient fibre to accumulate. Wrong again. I rang last week to enquire further, to be told that they are still waiting on other fibre, expected to arrive from Australia, but that it's being held up in quarantine by MAF because their paper work wasn't in order! Rumour has it, that the consignees followed the letter of the law in terms of documentation as advised by their local AQIS office, but that advice was incorrect; the paperwork wasn't with the consignment and everyone would have to wait until a correctly completed form arrived in NZ.

I do wish AQIS and MAF would sort out their communication channels a little better so that we do not have to endure this capricious implementation of various rules and regs involved in this process. I will complete this saga for your blog, once I emerge from this horrible nightmare which is scouring offshore!. Wish me luck.

Pam Goble

Lara Downs.