At Thursday's wool sales, which were the last for the year 2009, prices eased on the back of "higher seasonal volumes and reduced pressure to process urgent pre-Christmas orders". As compared to the last sale, which happened on December 10, the New Zealand Dollar was stable against a "weighted indicator of the main international wool trading currencies", which has resulted in making supply and demand the main push factors of the latest sales.

Overall, 84% of the wool offered was sold in a combined auction, which included 22,500 bales of North and South Island wool in the areas of Napier and Christchurch.

Official figures shared by the New Zealand Wool Services International have revealed that except for prices of some "longer fine hogget wools" that were to be shipped before the Chinese New Year, which hiked by around 1.5%-4%, costs for almost all other wool categories eased.

At Thursday's sales, as confirmed, competition was well spread, with China demanding finer type wool, while buyers from the Australasian carpet mills, India, the Middle East, Western Europe and the United Kingdom looked for wools which would be more carpet like.

The next wool sale is now scheduled for January 7, and will take place in Napier. It is expected that about 17,000 bales of North Island wool would be up for auction.