Wool: Stocks
The 1991 stockpile collapse that still haunts Australia
What this tab covers How much is left and how much is held. For minerals and energy: reserves, current output, years of supply and recycling for the top five countries. For farm commodities: production, ending stocks and stocks-to-use for the top five producers (USDA, October 2026). It also covers inventories and stockpiles.Recycling
Wool is recycled mechanically into shoddy yarn in Panipat (India) and Prato (Italy), but no reliable recycling rate is published. Australia's Reserve Price Scheme (1974-1991) bought wool to defend a floor price and built a stockpile of several million bales that took a decade to sell after the scheme collapsed in 1991. No government holds wool stocks now; India has no wool buffer policy.
Raw wool keeps well in bales, so inventories can build up in gluts. Australia learned this the hard way: its reserve price scheme had accumulated a huge stockpile when it collapsed in 1991, and the stock took years to sell. Today stocks are commercial, held by brokers, exporters and Chinese processors, and no public stocks-to-use series is widely followed. Wool is also recycled mechanically into lower-grade yarns, a small but steady secondary supply.