Belgium/"Made in wool": Belgium's first major wool trade fair

Did you know that there are many products made from local, Belgian wool? To promote this natural material, the first "Made in wool" trade show will take place this September 29, in Court-Saint-Etienne. Over 50 exhibitors from Wallonia, Brussels, Flanders and France will be present.

Among the organizers was Ygaëlle Dupriez from Lahage (Tintigny) in the province of Luxembourg, who is one of the pioneers in the valorization of Walloon wool. According to her, the wool from our region's sheep is still not sufficiently utilized locally: " Unfortunately, wool is not sufficiently valorized. There are still large quantities of wool which are not harvested at all, which remain in the sheepfolds and which breeders don't know what to do with. Another large part of the wool is sent to China to be transformed into low-quality products. So what we really want to do is find ways of adding value to wool through different products. There is a very wide variety of products ".

The primary aim of the "Made in wool" show is to showcase the diversity of products made from local wool: quilts, lighting fixtures, sweaters, rugs, socks, knitting yarns, soles, bags, insulation, jewelry... But the aim is also to make the general public more aware of the issues at stake in this resurgent industry.First and foremost, there's a stake for the breeders: " It's obviously an advantage for them, because the people who value sheep wool locally are keen to pay the breeders much more than the international market prices. On the international market, wool is recovered for 0€ or bought for 0.10€ per kilo, whereas local value-adding can reach 1, 2, 3 or even 4€ per kilo. So the more local the recovery, the more sheep farmers are rewarded for their work and their raw material.

Ygaëlle Dupriez mentions other issues: "There's also an issue for our region of having sheep that maintain the landscape, provide food, maintain biodiversity in the meadows and so on. There's a second environmental issue, which is not to waste a natural resource that is produced every year in our region. There's also the economic challenge of creating jobs for small and medium-sized businesses to transform our raw materials. There's also a social issue in the sense of passing on know-how, intergenerational transmission and then there's a cultural and creative issue, since wool is a material that can be used to create many unique pieces, works of art, etc. "

The "Made in wool" show will take place on September 29, at the PAM expo in Court-Saint-Etienne, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Source: www.rtbf.be/