Towards a sustainable wool chain in Apulia: dream or possible reality?

Apulia is a region in Southern Italy with traditional vocation for sheep breeding, homeland of the fine-wool endangeredmaintained Gentile di Puglia sheep breed. The region currently counts 53945 heads, mainly open-fleece, coarse-wool, pure- or cross- bred animals. In the past decades, sheep wool has lost most of its commercial value; wool price is usually too low to cover the shearing costs. Unsold wool also has to be disposed expensively as a special waste. FAO proclaimed 2009 as International Year of Natural Fibres. On the wave of this renovated interest, in 2010, the Murgia Viva Consortium, established in 2008 by 9 breeders, aiming to improve the value for farmers in sheep production, gathered 30 local farmers to conjointly collect and sell wool in block, at a better price than usual. In 2012, a 3-years project (PartnerSheep) financed by the Alta Murgia National Park allowed to extend the initiative to 108 farmers, for a total of 55.000 kg of greasy wool. In the same year, the Apulia Region financed a project (Pecore Attive) for the valorization of the wool from local Apulian sheep breeds through hand-made felting that later on evolved into a concept design startup for wool-based products. In 2016, a 2-years project (PLAUTO) has been financed by the Apulia Region to extend the campaign of wool collection to the whole region, in order to create two interprovincial centres for collection, pre-selection, grading and market distribution of the wool, to agree on procedural guidelines for wool production, and to test possible applications of wool to the textile, construction and horticultural sectors. After only six years, self-sustainability of the above initiatives is yet far from being a reality; notwithstanding, they had a major role in promoting networking and integration among stakeholders, which alone can be already considered a great achievement for a sector generally poorly aggregation-prone.