The wool trade in Bradford is being hit by a huge slump in the price of wool.

A collapse in the demand for wool worldwide has meant prices of all grades of wool have plummeted over the last 14 months.

To combat the problem, the British Wool Marketing Board, which is based in Oaks Mills, Clayton, is trying to clear some of it own slow-moving stock using a new selling technique.

The board is responsible for selling all wool produced by British farmers.

Under the new scheme, when a lot of British wool is sold to a buyer he or she is given an option to buy up to two further lots of the same grade at the same auction price within 48 hours.

Last week alone the board managed to sell 73,000 kilos of British wool using the new scheme.

BWMB's managing director Ian Hartley said: "We've been putting forward some very large offerings in recent sales and have had some good clearances, although prices still continue to be very depressed.

"If we can continue to sell these amounts and move some of the coloured hill wools, we may be able to largely avoid carrying stock into next season."

But Andrew Price, finance director at Hart Wool (Bradford) Ltd in Little Horton, said the move would help the board sell its surplus lower grade stock but have little impact on the rest of the industry.

He said: "The real problem is the lack of demand for wool worldwide and not just for British wool. Basically, any country which produces wool from Australia to Japan is finding it difficult to sell its annual production. We also need people need to buy wool products as there is a serious lack of demand combined with massive over-production."

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