POOLED wool is attracting a 2-3 per cent premium above the average auction price, according to pooling company, The Merino Company.

This season TMC will have marketed 70,000 bales, mostly from Australia and some from a South African pool.

Pool trading manager Angus Hooke told a forum in Hamilton last week that premiums were being achieved for a range of wool clips, including ceased mulesed, non-mulesed, EU eco merino, X-bred and organic.

Mr Hooke said the four-year-old company had achieved significant premiums on lines of wool that had a combination of these classifications.

He said X-bred pool for crossbred wool had grown 5 per cent each year and was predicted to rise 7 per cent in the coming season. This season, TMC had 12,500 bales in its mainland pool, 5000 X-bred pool bales, 16,500 in the Tasmanian pool and 4500 in the Western Australian pool.

Mr Hooke said TMC was marketing more of its pooled wool direct to its customers, and selling less through the open-auction system.

Initially, 54 per cent of the wool in the pools was sold at auction, however only 17 per cent was sold at auction this year.

For the coming season TMC was hoping to direct market all of its pooled wool.

Looking ahead, Mr Hooke said wool prices often followed the OECD indicators and given recent predictions he was not overly optimistic for next season's prices.

But TMC chairman and major shareholder Will Lempriere said the company would continue to work hard to deliver premiums above the market average for its suppliers.

He said the long-term aim was to produce a TMC pool that was operating independently of the open auction spot price.

Mr Lempriere said the TMC program was expanding into new areas and increasing its clientele. He hoped to double the pool volume within the next three to five years.

"We have differentiated our product by offering people a solution that is a finished garment," he said. "For growers who deliver to our pools, it is a risk-free investment."

Mr Lempriere said the wool industry had battled in recent times, partly because it was unable to attract new capital investment, or had failed to differentiate itself.

He said the industry needed to change the image of wool from a commodity and market it as a "Champagne-status" product.