Robert Wang makes his plea for more two-way traffic with China’s wool industry.

SELF-DESCRIBED wool trade linchpin between Australia and China Robert Wang made a plea to bring the countries’ industries closer together, at the Wool Industries Australia annual Wool Week dinner last week.

After being awarded an Australian Wool Industry Medal, a grateful and humbled Mr Wang said most people who know him would probably call him a linchpin between the Chinese and Australian wool industries.

“I think I can accept that, but those who don’t know me or who don’t like me, just call me ‘a bloody interpreter’,” he said.

“It doesn’t matter, I think the mission has been accomplished, and I’ve done what I had (to do).”

Mr Wang said he was grateful he has been accepted and recognized by the industry that he has put most of his career into.

“As I said I am not very good as public speaking, but just before I finish I would like to make a little observation and comment.”

Mr Wang last year retired as AWTA China manager after a 30-year involvement in the wool industry, starting with the Australian Wool Corporation in the 1990’s and in the AWTA position in 2008.

At the Australian Wool Testing Authority, Mr Wang was involved in translating AWTA testing information into Chinese, assisting to resolve testing questions and disputes, and was intimately involved in the training and education of several generations of Chinese wool industry players, including in the TEAM-3 and Topmark projects to assist Chinese processors improve their use of Australia wool. He has also been heavily involved in assisting, explaining, and supporting Chinese delegates at IWTO conferences. He now works as an Australian wool industry consultant.

Mr Wang told the Wool Week dinner delegates that the Australian Bureau of Statistics June figures showed that 90 percent of Australia’s wool was sold to China as European purchasing dropped off.

Even with the Chinese domestic market “not that rosy”, at least China keeps buying our wool, he said.

But observing the people at the dinner, Mr Wang remarked that there were very few people attending from the Chinese industry.

He then said about 10 percent of the people at the dinner would go to the Nanjing Wool Market Conference next month, socialize and sometimes get “badly pissed,” but next day wool contracts would be signed.

“At least we learn the way the Chinese behave in this industry in terms of their mentality, their culture and their understanding.”

He commented that many of the Australian wool trading companies’ clients already had staff in Australian offices.

“Why not you bring these people come to tonight’s occasion to learn our culture, our traditions.

“To learn the stubbornness of our people, to learn the cunning skills of our people, this is all two-way traffic,” he said.

“I really do hope that the wool trade between our two countries can further develop (and be) more healthy.

“Because don’t forget, they buy 90pc of our wool.”