Reda COO Francesco Botto Poala, left, and Reda director Fabrizio Botto Poala, far right, with award winners John and Caroline Chappell.

NEW South Wales superfine wool growers have dominated the annual awards at the Reda Future Project awards in Hobart last week.

Reda is a high-end manufacturer of pure wool men’s suiting, close-to-skin, activewear and technical fabrics and products located, near Biella, in northern Italy.

The awards at the Glen Albyn Estate at Taroona followed a conference in Hobart on October 28, which included Reda and industry speakers.

Awards for quality wool production in the 2017/18 season were announced at the dinner, with the winner of the very best wool clip travelling to Italy in mid-2019 as the guests of the Reda company.

The 2017-18 winners among the best quality/quantity producer finalists were John and Caroline Chappell at Dundee, NSW. In second place were Chris Dunne and Linda Waters at Uralla, NSW, and Armidale grower Warren Coventry was third.

The Reda Future Project was an initiative created by Fabrizio and Francesco Botto Poala in early 2015. Twenty leading wool growers from throughout Australia were invited to join the very select group. Reda said the intention was to build a strong relationship between the producer and manufacturer which would have benefits for all involved. Underpinning the relationship is a 3-5 year supply contract which has a mechanism allowing the pricing to move with the physical market. It also has inbuilt premiums which strongly favour the types of wool most required by Reda, the company said. Fourteen more producers were invited into the Reda Future Project in early 2018.

Sheep industry consultant and educator Jason Trompf facilitated a discussion between conference participants. Major topics isolated to increase the value of the RFP group included contracts; environment, sustainability and animal welfare; grower image, marketing and consumer education, and; grower education and production science.

Reda said it was agreed that focus working groups covering each topic would be formed with meetings planned for early 2019 where Reda representatives would also attend, the company said.

Reda chief operating officer Francesco Botto Poala and the company’s raw procurement manager Fabrizio Botto Poala made presentations covering the current market situation, innovations and research. This included lifecycle analysis of wool, looking at wool’s carbon footprint from the production-to-retail, and the possibility of closing the cycle with a study of the “usage” and “end-of-life” calculations for end products.

Reda said it uses the equivalent of 20,000 bales per year with about 80-85pc of these bales coming from Australia. The Reda company is divided in three business units: Reda 1865 – formal men’s suiting; Reda Active –close-to-skin, activewear and technical fabrics, and; ReWoolution – garment manufacture/retail of active and close-to-skin apparel products.

“Every day I wake up and think about how I can sell the equivalent of 12,000 suits per day,” Mr Botto Poala said.