One of the country’s major wool buyers is closing its doors later this year, citing the woeful state of the wool markets and rising costs. Mid-States Wool Growers Cooperative – based in Canal Winchester, Ohio – sent a letter to its customers last week saying it would stop accepting wool May 1. The letter said the board of directors decided to close in 2023.
“The wool marketing season of 2022 was your cooperative’s worst marketing season since the wool glut of the 1990s. With rising costs and no market for the wool that our producers send in, the difficult decision was made,” the letter stated.
Mid-States sells about 1.5 million pounds of wool each year from its 3,000 members from across the country. It has brought in wool from more than 30 states, as far west as Arizona and New Mexico.
