What The CSIRO Says.....

Heather Forward, Communications Manager for CSIRO provides the following explanation regarding the closure:

The CSIRO wool scour is due to close around 30 June 2008. Discussions are being held between representatives of the Rare and Natural Fibres industry, the Government and CSIRO to determine what may transpire after that date. Options include transferring the CSIRO scour to the private sector.

By way of background I can advise you that the pilot wool scouring facilities at the CSIRO site in Belmont were established specifically to meet the needs of major research activity into wool scouring in a period that lasted from the early 1970s through to the mid 1990s. Since then, the demand for wool scouring research has declined and the facility has been made available on a very limited basis for commercial scouring of small lots of wool and exotic fibres. For the past few years, these commercial services have helped maintain the facility for research work and provided a service to local businesses; however this was not enough to sustain the long term viability of the wool scour, and without research activity, falls outside the core purpose of CSIRO.

CSIRO regularly reviews its science and underlying support mechanisms to maximise impact. Following recent shifts in the wool industry, Australian wool research activity is now focused on product development and demand creation. Therefore CSIRO could find no compelling reasons to keep the scouring mill open for research purposes, and cannot justify keeping it open for purely commercial purposes.

Alternative scouring services are available, in particular through fully commercial small lot scouring services offered by AgResearch in New Zealand. It has processed small lots of wool and exotic fibre for Australian businesses for some years now, and larger commercial wool scours in Australia process these fibres when aggregated into commercial lots. AgResearch is continuing to service Australian customers, and CSIRO has assisted by providing introductions.

AgResearch New Zealand, Gerald Street, Private Bag 4749, Christchurch are operating a small scale scouring services and have other downstream processing equipment which may provide the service you require for natural wool and coloured and exotic fibre. AgResearch are a “Quarantine Transition Facility” and have all the procedures and authorisations in place to receive and scour greasy wool and other raw natural fibre from overseas countries. AgResearch organise an “Import Permit” on behalf of their clients. Their scour is Bio-Gro certified (an organic certification), for those customers that are interested in producing organic products.

I hope this explains CSIRO’s recent decisions.