Filmmaker sets out to tell NZ wool’s untold story

Summary

Canterbury cinematographer Tim McInnes, founder of creative video company Ruffells, is developing a film project aimed at telling the world about the value of New Zealand wool and the stories of the producers and processors behind it. He fears the wool industry is being overwhelmed by the anonymity of corporate retail, losing its proven selling points and failing to deliver fair returns to farmers. Wool is sustainable, low-carbon, plastic-free, hand-produced and versatile, yet it has delivered poor returns for years, he said.

McInnes sees wool as a talisman defining New Zealand identity, its story carrying the country's uniqueness in an increasingly homogenised world. To understand the wool story, he recently visited India as the New Zealand-India free trade agreement came into force. Under the agreement, the tariff reduction on wool is limited, from 2.5% to zero, but India is New Zealand's second-largest wool export market and the two countries share a long wool trading relationship.

He said New Zealand wool is mostly produced on family farms and exported to often fourth-generation family processors for highly manual processing—a process that is almost entirely handcrafted from raw material to finished product, rare in today's high-tech mass production, and only truly becomes a commodity when it reaches large retail channels. He believes that if part of the retail profit could be recaptured and returned to the rest of the supply chain, the entire chain would benefit significantly. He also held in-depth talks with Indian trade officials who visited New Zealand shortly before the FTA took effect, and they expressed strong interest in the project airing in India.

McInnes hopes to gain support from like-minded people within and beyond the industry, saying the project is not just about wool but about New Zealand.

Commentary

The New Zealand wool industry has long faced the dual pressures of weak strong wool prices and competition from synthetic fibres. Although its products have sustainability, low-carbon and plastic-free attributes that are favoured in global markets, brand premiums and retail profits have not effectively flowed back to the farm gate. Tim McInnes's film project seeks to reshape perceptions of wool's value through storytelling, which aligns with the branding path of New Zealand SMEs—in homogenised global competition, origin stories and handcraft heritage are becoming differentiators.

India, as New Zealand's second-largest wool export market, sees the FTA cut tariffs only from 2.5% to zero, but the symbolic significance outweighs the actual concession, reducing compliance costs for small exporters and sending a positive signal. Notably, India's textile industry is dominated by family-run small and medium processors, creating a natural link with New Zealand's family farms. This high fragmentation at both ends of the supply chain is both a challenge and an opportunity: if direct connections can be established through content marketing, bypassing the channel dominance of large retailers, the profit distribution pattern could improve.

McInnes's emphasis on "recapturing retail profit" is not fanciful; global wool markets are seeing vertical integration trends, such as direct cooperation between Italian high-end fabric makers and Australian farms. New Zealand businesses can learn from such cases and use digital tools to shorten the supply chain. Furthermore, the project's potential broadcast in India could strike a cultural chord—Indian consumers' preference for natural fibres aligns closely with the eco-friendly attributes of New Zealand wool, and SMEs could use this to explore B2B content marketing rather than relying solely on traditional trade shows.

New Zealand's wool export values have fluctuated in recent years; in 2023, exports to India were about NZ$120 million, accounting for 18% of total wool exports, but unit prices remain below Australian merino wool, making value-added improvement urgent. If McInnes's film succeeds, it could not only raise consumer awareness but also drive industry standard-setting, such as traceability certification or carbon footprint labelling—niche areas where New Zealand SMEs excel.

Keywords: New Zealand wool, film project, Tim McInnes, farmer returns, New Zealand-India FTA, hand processing, supply chain profit, New Zealand identity

Photo by xiSerge on Pixabay

Source: farmersweekly.co.nz