# Wool: Stocks

The 1991 stockpile collapse that still haunts Australia

Source page: https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/wool/stocks/

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.

## Other sections

- [Summary](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/wool/index.md)
- [Overview](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/wool/overview/index.md)
- [Correlation](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/wool/correlation/index.md)
- [Extraction](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/wool/extraction/index.md)
- [Production](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/wool/production/index.md)
- [Cycles](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/wool/cycles/index.md)
- [Trading](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/wool/trading/index.md)
- [Movement](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/wool/movement/index.md)
- [Criticality](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/wool/criticality/index.md)
- [Characteristics](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/wool/characteristics/index.md)
- [Emissions](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/wool/emissions/index.md)
- [Relationships](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/wool/links/index.md)