Fleece auctions enter online world
Wool, the domestic industry that once gave Australia one of the world's highest living standards, has finally entered the world of 21st-century transactions.While Australia's wealth these days depends more on mining than the sheep's back, wool seller AuctionsPlus will next week conduct its first real-time fleece auction.
Its market operations manager, Tony Benson, said industry contraction, slow internet in the bush and a long-term reluctance of agents to abandon live wool sales were among reasons why more resources had not been pumped into online wool auctioning earlier.AuctionsPlus had invested $170,000 in hardware and had spent two years modifying its Linux-based cattle and sheep auctions system to accommodate wool and grain sales, he said.
Brokers would pay $1 a bail for auctioning wool electronically 24 hours a day, compared with about $1.90 at a physical auction.
Up to 80 lots of wool could be sold in a single sale. Exporters could view physical dimensions, testing results, and the Australian Wool Exchange's (AWEX) ID before auction.
They could inspect purchased bales up to 24 hours after an auction and cancel the sale if wool did not match specifications.
Click go the buyers as fleece auctions finally enter online world — The Australian