An increasing level of confidence in the economic outlook across both Europe and the rest of the world is having a positive impact on wool prices with the opening sales of the current selling season showing the improvement in prices was being sustained.

Mr Corbett said, "Demand was so strong in the closing half of 2012/2013 season that we sold virtually every kilo of wool which was hugely important as we headed into the new 2013/2014 selling season.  With high clearance rates and prices up on the same time last year it’s also encouraging to see the volume of wool sold to date is significantly higher than at the same time last year."

"Demand for British wool has traditionally been largely driven by the carpet market and an upturn in the housing market is helping increase demand, but the strong demand from the market in China is also having an impact on the interest and the demand shown in our product," he added.

"Thanks to BWMB's competitive auction system all producers marketing their wool through BWMB would benefit from these price increases" Mr Corbett said and encouraged visitors to the Winter Fair to visit the BWMB stand to find out more about the Board’s activities and enjoy some light refreshments.