More than 90% of Canadian wool is thrown or burned, for lack of buyers and expertise

Quebec seeks to revive the chain of collection, transformation and sale of its wool. But to get there, you will have to start again and relearn how to do it.

The Lemieux Filature of Saint-Éphrem-de-Beauce is the last size company in Quebec to still be able to spin the wool. It was the founder of the company, Joseph-Albert Lemieux, who, the first, had taken over almost 120 years ago an old mill built not far from there, on the edge of the river, to card wool.

At that time, it was transformed what the sheep breeders of the region brought there in addition to recycling the old knitting to make them “sorts of wool sausages that people then spinned in hand on wheat at home to make them fabric clothes”, says Serge Lemieux, great-grandson of Joseph-Albert and current president of the company of the company of the company of Joseph Fifty employees.

But it’s been years that we haven’t seen Quebec wool at Lemieux spinning. The one we go there today, at the same time as synthetic fibers whose popularity exploded from the 1950s and 1960s, came from New Zealand or England.

“The decline in the wool industry in Quebec and Canada has been over forty years,” said Jane Underhill, expert in the matter and one of the leaders of a new project aimed at overthrowing this trend. Over time, sheep breeders found themselves selling their cheaper wool for it to be shipped abroad, especially in China, where it was transformed and mixed with other fibers to be re -exported around the world. “With the pandemic, we hit our last wall. Everything stopped. Even if it was only temporary, it destabilized us completely. »»

Today, “wool is almost no longer marketed,” confirms Jimmy Lapointe, president of the sheep farmers in Quebec. “Before, what could be drawn paid roughly the cost of the mowing. Today is four times less. There are some who sometimes manage to sell it, but it is almost only to get rid of it. The others compost it or throw it away. »»

More than 90 % of destroyed wool

Second behind Ontario, with 20 % of Canadian production, Quebec had a little more than 900 breeders at the head of a herd of 116,000 sheep and adult rams last year, distributed all over the territory, but above all concentrated in the regions of Bas-Saint-Laurent, Chaudière-Appalaches, Center-du-Québec and Estrie, explains Jimmy Lapointe. 1000 sheep in Saint-Augustin, Lac-Saint-Jean.

Essentially raised for meat and a little bit for milk, sheep must be mowed at least once a year to promote breastfeeding of lambs and because animals help heat their buildings in winter. About six to seven pounds of wool per sheep, and the price we can hope for from this wool has dropped from $ 1 to 25 ¢ per book in recent years.

According to an estimate reported last fall by a professor of the Higher School of Fashion of ESG UQAM, Marie-Ève Faust, more than 90 % of Canadian wool is thrown or burned. This would represent more than 130,000 toisons each year in Quebec.

However, it is not the qualities that lack natural wool, say his supporters. Soft, flexible and natural, it is a good insulation against cold and heat, in addition to being antimicrobial, fireproof and biodegradable. Depending on its quality and characteristics, fiber can be used in clothing, decoration, medical equipment, filtration or insulation of buildings.

The problem in Canada is that, as sheep is above all raised for meat, there are more than forty breeds often crossed between them, which gives great diversity and a high variability of wool, explains Jane Underhill. It is the opposite in countries like New Zealand, the United Kingdom, South Africa, France or Argentina, whose wool (notably merino) is known, prized and largely marketed.

Relearn everything

To relaunch the wool sector in Quebec as in Canada, it will be necessary to relearn everything, explains Dany Charest, Managing Director of Technitextile Québec, the niche of excellence of the Technical Textiles industry in Quebec. “We lost the expertise for the mowing. We no longer even know the properties of our wool. You have to reclaim it before you can wonder what you could do with it. »»

To do this, various players in the community will start with a “technical and economic feasibility study” funded equally by the government and the private sector and which will lead to a report at the beginning of next year. About fifteen Quebec breeders will provide 6,000 pounds of wool to be tested, analyzed, transformed in different ways and compared to English and New Zealand wool. The Lemieux spinning will put its machines to use. The Montreal textile manufacturer Milo & Dexter will see what he can do with the sons that will come out. Duray, Princeville, will make lots of stockings, gloves and mittens; Pierre, Val-des-Sources wool, will weave covers and carpets.

“Among the challenges that are faced, there is the variability and the quality of the raw material,” says Dany Charest. It will take both rigor on the part of breeders at the time of wool mowing and packaging and an adaptability of the transformers. […] The advantage is that we do it earlier than other traditional sectors, such as hemp and flax, while there are players and expertise on the ground. »»

Carpets rather than clothes

Breeders will have nothing against the idea of paying more attention to the cleanliness and the different characteristics of their wool before shipping it, says Jimmy Lapointe. “If the price we draw from it justifies this additional effort, we will be happy to do so, in addition to having the satisfaction of knowing that our wool will be highlighted. »»

If you ask Jane Underhill, she will tell you that, taking into account the technical characteristics and the cost of wool in Quebec, the most promising track could be on the side of the carpets, curtains, bedding, furniture recovery and other decorative elements whose price would be less a determining factor than the local origin of the product.

“We have a good quality of wool, but it may remain expensive compared to other options. I doubt that many people will be ready to buy a sweater at $ 800, but a bed cover queen In local wool at $ 700 as a wedding gift, carpets or curtains in a government office or the covering of furniture from a chic hotel … There would be demand for this. The objective is to enhance our producers and our products, and that each person in the supply chain finds their account there. »»

Serge Lemieux is convinced that 100 % Canadian wool products could be successful. “To be able to say that a product was made by a company of such a place in Quebec with such breeder’s wool … This is the kind of stories that would have value in people’s eyes, at the same time that it would highlight a piece of our history. »»

The businessman believes in it so much that he is already working, at his factory in Saint-Éphrem-de-Beauce, at a new collection “in the image of the founder Joseph-Albert Lemieux”, proudly announces his great-grandson. It will be “Canadian wool knitting son”, this same wool “which is part of the history of our business from the start”.

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