Domestic wool in spinning mills back “in”
Agriculture
Virgin wool from local mountains BECOMES more interesting again for spinning mills. Because of the extremely low kilo price of 30 cents on the world market, raw wool has also been thrown away for years. Often tons. Or it serves as an insulating material on the construction site or fertilizer in the fields. Now there is more spinning again.
About 30,000 sheep live in the province of Salzburg. It’s a long way from the washed wool to the thread for spinning. One of the last spinning mills in the country works in the Lungau municipality of Mariapfarr – with machines that are almost a hundred years old. The head of the company Wolle Huber is Franz Huber: “You can do almost everything yourself with these machines if something needs to be repaired. And the natural product wool is slowly being recognized again. “
Organic wool for mattresses in Germany
Domestic sheep’s wool has been a disposable product in many European countries for years. On the other hand, wool from alpaca and merino from New Zealand or Australia is very desirable. And where do Salzburg mountain farmers and sheep farmers bring many of the wool from their animals to? Hans Steiner is a mobile sheep shearer from Hüttau (Pongau): “The organic wool is coming to Germany. Mattresses are made there. The other comes to Abtenau, where pellets are made for combustion. But overall, after a long time, the price of wool is rising. It is in demand again. “
Raw material from the Glockner area
The farmer Elisabeth Fellner from Heiligenblut in the Glockner region (Carinthia) also has the wool of her hundred sheep processed in the Lungau Huber spinning mill: “I’m really looking forward to working and knitting. Winter is coming and it is the ideal time for this work. “
The finest carpets are often created. Wool Huber also knits socks, socks, mittens, walkjankers and many other products – for wage labor and for sale, as the knitter Martina Huber describes: “This is manual work, even if you use a knitting machine. I can fully live out this work. There are many things to do with every product. “
Various products
Company boss Franz Huber emphasizes that when customers are happy, then he is happy too: “You can’t do anything better than make people happy.” Highly profitable mass production looks completely different. The Huber spinning mill is slow to keep up with fashion – but it is also a crisis-proof family business.