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Wool levy

Our predecessor organisation used to charge farmers a levy from the wool they sold, as well as from beef and sheepmeat.

The levy provided funding for industry-good work supporting the national wool clip - from contributing towards the training of shearers and wool handlers to sheep genetics research.

The wool levy was stopped after farmers rejected it in a very close vote in a referendum in 2009.

Now Beef + Lamb New Zealand will seek an independent evaluation of the impact on the industry.

The move follows a successful remit to this year's annual meeting. Farmers supported a call to evaluate the result of discontinuing the wool levy and to investigate whether a future collective investment would add value for woolgrowers.

The results of investigations into a possible future collective investment will come back to next year's annual meeting.

Beef + Lamb New Zealand still funds some wool-related activities from reserves left over from former levy payments.

Related information

Past and present investment

In 2011 seven entrepreneurial wool projects won a funding boost of more than half a million dollars from a contestable fund set up to share out the remaining wool levies.

The money was invested in businesses demonstrating the greatest potential to pump money back into the wool industry – and ultimately, into farmers' pockets.

Wool levy review (PDF, 226KB)
An overview of the wool levy income collected and investments made by Meat & Wool New Zealand from 1 July 2004 to 30 September 2008

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