Wool Value Chain Development Project

In partnership with Canadian Cooperative Wool Growers (CCWG), the Sheep Producers Association of Nova Scotia (SPANS) and Agra Point’s Jonathan Wort, the RRC and NSAC’s Farm Energy Nova Scotia (FENS) Research Group (http://nsac.ca/fens/) have been investigating the feasibility of developing new wool products, businesses, and value chains in Atlantic Canada.

Funded by FENS, the RRC, the Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture’s Technology Development grant program and also the SSHRC Small Institutional Grants Program, the Wool Value Chain Development Project has been looking at what additional wool products might be developed, at how local value chains might evolve, and at how these new products might be marketed within the region and/or beyond.

A primary focus: potential use of wool as an insulating material. Wool is already being used as an environmentally friendly alternative to conventional insulation material worldwide, so the team—made up of sheep producer, SPANS board member, and research assistant Jaclyn Mosher, Kenny Corscadden and Ashwini Kulkarni from FENS, and Deborah Stiles of the RRC—are looking to explore this value chain in the Atlantic Canadian context.

Once one of the biggest industries in Atlantic Canada, sheep’s wool now has few market opportunities in the region or globally, for chief markets for wool remain only in a few countries. The research shows that this globalized environment for raw wool has tended to negatively impact smaller-scale producers in both Atlantic Canada as well as elsewhere in Canada and North America, and has stifled the potential development of niche products and innovation in use of wool.

The first phases of the project have involved networking with regional producer organizations and artisanal groups, investigating the global nature of the sheep’s wool insulation business, and conducting, with the help of SPANS and CCWG, an inventory of wool production in Atlantic Canada.

The results of the inventory have charted how much wool is currently being produced and its current uses. Estimates by the team’s AgraPoint partner, Jonathan Wort, appear to be confirmed: about 50% of the wool being produced in the region is being landfilled, stored/stockpiled, or thrown away. This represents a serious under-utilization of a valuable product. In terms of production of wool annually, the project’s results were as follows:

Nova Scotia: 62,200 lbs
PEI: 19,800 lbs
Newfoundland: 18,000 lbs
New Brunswick: 21,000 lbs

Using funds from the SSHRC Small Institutional Grants program, the team also is analyzing possible business scenarios and their rural development potential. The team, aided by NSCC intern Ovide Mazerolle, is presently analyzing the current sheep’s wool products on the market for their efficacy and R value, examining the regulations related to uptake of any new product by builders in Canada, and testing, through the software ExtendSim, a number of possible production scenarios, that include the options of developing a completely new Canadian business or producer cooperative, partnering with a business outside of Canada who is already producing wool insulation, or partnering with an existing Canadian insulation manufacturer.

Further updates and research results about the project will appear on this page in the coming months as well as in publications being prepared. In the meantime, if this project prompts a question, comment, or input, please contact the Wool Value Chain Development Project coordinator Jaclyn Mosher at the RRC at 1-902-893-6227 or jnmosher@nsac.ca, Kenny Corscadden at 1-902-893-6715 / kcorscadden@nsac.ca, or Deborah Stiles at 1-902-893-6705.