7 October 1999

MEDIA RELEASE

BUSINESS AND RURAL MEDIA

FARM PAGES, DAILY MEDIA

Woolnet, the new system for trading wool on the internet, is live and operating in practice mode.

Farmers, exporters, brokers, merchants and mills can now explore selling and buying wool without leaving their farm or office but, for the meantime, no wool or money will change hands.

Lance Wiggins, managing director of WoolPro, the company which is developing the system, said sellers and buyers should now log on to Woolnet and try practice trading.

"We want sellers and buyers to be fully familiar with the system before we go commercial. We also need their feedback," he said.

Practice trading is an important milestone in the development of Woolnet -- the world’s first internet-based trading system for a major farm product.

The second milestone would be the piloting of the first real trades, which would begin shortly, said Mr Wiggins.

"We are running a little behind schedule, but decided to modify aspects of the design in response to feedback from our user panels. It was better to get things right than to stick to an arbitrary time-frame," he said.

"Practice trades allow users to identify modifications or add-ons they would like to see in Woolnet Mark 2, as well as any bugs which need to be dealt with now. The pilot trades will test vital support systems like banking and insurance.

"We don’t expect any major changes will be needed before real trades begin. It’s a very smart website and we’re very excited with its potential."

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Woolnet 2 …

Mr Wiggins acknowledged that there had been some criticism of the Woolnet concept, but said this had been anticipated, and there was sufficient interest from all sectors to make Woolnet a success.

Unlike traditional wool auctions and their electronic equivalent, which have fixed trading days, Woolnet will operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

"Constant trading and forward sales on Woolnet are expected to assist the market. The price spikes and corrections associated with traditional selling systems will be reduced," claims Mr Wiggins.

"This will give customers greater confidence and allow price signals to be more transparent."

He said Woolnet would help growers to be strong, well-informed sellers. But most importantly, it would create an environment in which growers, service providers, exporters and mills could build new business opportunities.

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Technical queries: Paul Stanley-Boden, Tel 0800 4 WOOLPRO