The South African wool and mohair industries are making significant strides in sustainability, traceability, and inclusion. A recent webinar hosted by the National Agricultural Marketing Council (NAMC) in partnership with the department of agriculture, land reform and rural development, Cape Wools South Africa (CWSA), and the Mohair Empowerment Trust highlighted key initiatives in both sectors.
Chief executive officer of CWSA, Deon Saayman, said their organisation has been instrumental in promoting sustainability and traceability in South Africa’s wool industry. He said in July 2020, the organisation introduced the Sustainable Cape Wool Standard, setting a benchmark for responsible wool production.
According to Saayman, despite a slight decline in production from 41.4 million kilograms in the 2020-2023 season to 40.6 million kilograms in 2023-2024, wool remains a vital industry in South Africa.
“We have to focus on genetics and obtain more funding to really introduce better genetics in the communal farming sector. If you don’t have the right genetics, if you don’t produce a good quality Merino wool, you cannot get the price the rest of the market will get.
“Another challenge is wool and stock theft, which has a severe impact on farmers. To address this, CWSA is working with the Red Meat Producers Organisation (RPO) to develop a reporting platform for affected farmers,” he said.
Enhancing traceability
Saayman said innovation is playing an increasing role in improving wool traceability.
“One of the things we’ve done is actually roll out RFID technology, which is now sewn into each wool bale, which will now be able to be scanned within the shearing shed. That process can then be followed through right to when the wool arrives at the scourer overseas,
Additionally, the Sustainable Cape Wool Standard facilitates communal farming accreditation, with electronic audits conducted at shearing sheds to ensure compliance.
“To drive meaningful transformation, CWSA established the Wool Empowerment Trust in August 2023. The trust focuses on creating strategic and cohesive empowerment programmes, with a strong emphasis on sustainability accreditation. This initiative is expected to open up better market access for communal farmers, particularly in Europe,” he said.
Further discussions during the webinar highlighted the risk assessment process involved in exporting animal fiber products. Dr Boitumelo Motsisi-Mehlape from the department of agriculture provided critical insights into how foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) impacts South Africa’s wool industry.
She explained that many countries require thorough risk assessments before allowing imports of South African wool due to concerns over FMD.
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“Once the evaluation has been done, if the results are acceptable to the importing country, then we’ll follow the steps, whereby the import requirements will be drafted, if we comply, then only the export can take place,” she said.
She emphasised that effective disease management and biosecurity measures are essential for maintaining export access and ensuring that South Africa meets international sanitary standards.
Development projects in mohair industry
Parallel to the developments in the wool sector, the mohair industry is making significant progress in black economic empowerment and commercialisation.
Beauty Mokgwamme from the Mohair Empowerment Trust highlighted its role in fostering industry transformation. “The vision is always to ensure the sustainable mohair supply. As we all know, South Africa is the leader in terms of production. The last record in 2024 was 54% of global production, and the Empowerment Trust is also contributing to that.”
She said the trust collaborates with government departments, brokers, and financial institutions to ensure sustainability for new-era farmers and since its inception, it has established eight development projects involving approximately 7 000 Angora goats, successfully transitioning several farmers into commercial production.
“In each and every project that’s settled out of this programme, they are today standing and sustainable farming with Angora goats. We don’t stop the relationship with these farmers. We continue to support, to visit. We still continue to even report in terms of the production to see if they’re still standing and farming successfully with Angora goats,” Mokgwamme explained.
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