UK Woolkeepers programme to validate sustainability, fairness, provenance
A UK wool merchant and its partners are rolling out a new certification programme for British wool.
Called Woolkeepers, the programme is a wool quality assurance platform designed around standards in agriculture and textiles. Conceived by wool merchant H. Dawson, the traceability platform for third-party product verification records the route of the wool, from the farm to the retail establishment. The system, its founders said, is intended to ensure animal welfare, sourcing integrity, fair pricing and “good provenance”.
The collaboration between wool merchant H. Dawson and buyer Brannach Olann was developed in partnership with several key clients including HDWool, maker of the active garment insulation. H. Dawson is a 132-year-old wool merchant based in Yorkshire, UK, and HDWool is its wool garment insulation business. Other partners include Hypnos and Woolroom.
H. Dawson and Brannach Olann said their vision is to “rework the conventional supply chain model and to provide the British sheep farmers with a new, sustainable and meaningful route to market for their wool that allows farmers visibility of where their wool ends up while providing fair payment".
“Despite the fall in worldwide wool prices as a result of Covid-19,” Woolkeepers said in a press release, the programme is “ensuring that for the 2020 wool season, those farmers involved in the scheme will receive the same payment as the previous season for their wool, which is a great step towards genuine sustainability of supply”.
