Editing British Wool Marketing Board (section)

== Industry in Decline, further impaired by Covid-19 ==
The growth in use of synthetic fibres, coupled with the introduction of US imports and fewer players in the wool industry’s supply chain have led to the regression, since the 1950s, of the British wool industry and its products popularity.<ref name=":0">{{cite news |date=17 July 2020 |title=Coronavirus: Sheep wool 'barely worth selling any more' |work=Elisabeth Mahy |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-53421546 |access-date=23 April 2021}}</ref> The global wool market was forced to shut in February 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which made it impossible to sell all of the years produced crop. As a result, extensive amounts of unsold wool are stored in depots, causing prices of wool to plummet. A 14 million kg backlog is waiting to be cleared by the board, while the average price per kg has virtually halved from the previous year’s 60p to 32p. Further reasons for current decline in wool prices are Brexit uncertainty and the US-China trade war.<ref name=":0" />

The situation had dramatic effects for sheep farmers across the UK. Farmers lost money through selling their product, as the costs that came with shearing and selling the wool outweighed any profits. Particularly for remote farms, where the asking price for wool was worth less than transportation and fuel costs to the given British Wool depots.<ref name=":0" /> Many farmers were forced to discard their wool by storing it away, composting, or through more dramatic methods such as burning. This left farmers only having to cover shearing expenses, as it is still necessary to sheer the sheep for their health and well-being (so they do not suffer from blowfly strike, which causes maggots). The wool predicament leads to the farmers growing concern about the British Wool Board policy. Some farmers feeling the organisation has been too focused on the Chinese market and missed out on establishing connections with substitute markets, alternative supply chains and creating more consumer demand.<ref>{{cite news |date=26 August 2020 |title=Reports from Devon that sheep farmers are burning wool |work=Lisa Young |url=https://www.southwestfarmer.co.uk/news/18676570.reports-devon-sheep-farmers-burning-wool/ |access-date=23 April 2021}}</ref>