MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Dynamic market for RWS certified Merino wool in Uruguay

Merino wool sales (less than 16.5 microns) have been registered at US$ 11 a kilo with deals of US$ 10 a kilo for 17.5 microns wool.

The Uruguayan wool market has become particularly dynamic during this 2025/26 season, reflecting events in Australia where prices for clean fine wool have soared above US$ 12 per kilo, for the first time in six and a half years, very close to the maximums from 2019.

 In Uruguay Merino wool sales (less than 16.5 microns) have been registered at US$ 11 a kilo with deals of US$ 10 a kilo for 17.5 microns wool. In effect a wool agent from the north of Uruguay, (Paysandu) reported fast sales of 90.000 kilos of Merino, 17.5 microns. All the deals have included RWS certification and the green label from the Uruguayan Wool Secretariat.

However there have been some problems with backlogged wool since some farmers have had several annual clips stored, when they considered prices non attractive and had the sufficient funds, or other income to hold out. Sorting out those bales can be complicated.

Other operations included 18.5 microns Merino at US$ 9.50 per kilo; 18.7 microns Merino, without RWS certification, at US$ 8.60 kilo; 19.7 microns Merino at US$ 8 kilo and 19.9 microns Merino, uncertified at US$ 7 per kilo, and 20/21 microns at US$ 6.30 per kilo.

But Corriedale coarse wool, 26 microns managed US$ 210 a kilo. Uruguay’s flock is mainly Corriedale, close to 65% and 26% finer fibers mostly Merino and Merino cross breeds. It is estimated that Uruguay’s flock in two/three decades fell from over 22 million to just 6/5 million.

Meantime in Australia conditions seem to anticipate the current strong demand for fine wool given the drastic drop in their wool clip. The Australian Wool Innovation, AWI, reported that because of adverse climate conditions the wool clip has dropped over 10% and could reach 21%.

In perspective, the loss of Australian wool production during the last two years has fallen to a magnitude equivalent to all of the South Africa wool production, which is Australia’s closest competitor in Merino wool volume, the AWI reported.

This situation also helps to understand why the double encouraging impact for wool prices in Australia since market prices managed to increase despite the fact that the Australian dollar strengthened while the US dollar lost ground globally. This was contrary to what happens normally.

Finally no auctions in Australia this week on request from China, which absorbs 85% of Australian wool exports, since this week is the Spring Festival and Chinese New Year. Auctions will resume 24 January