The Directorate General has sent a technical note to the veterinary services of the Regional Delegations, ADS and collaborating bodies.

Wool is a SANDACH 3 animal by-product and any other use must follow the usual procedure.

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Agriculture

The Directorate General for Agriculture, Livestock and Rural Development, of the Regional Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, has authorised the use of wool on farms of origin for exclusively agricultural uses. In this way, the wool can be used for composting or tree padding. This has been possible thanks to the Pilot Project for the study of the viability of Mallorcan sheep’s wool as a material applied in the industrial sector, developed by Mallorca Rural and the actions of the veterinarians of the Directorate General of Agriculture, Livestock and Rural Development, of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.

This use refers only to the farms of origin and for agricultural uses, since wool, being considered a SANDACH 3 animal by-product, needs to be treated for industrial uses and also for uses outside the farm of origin. This is, according to the director general of Agriculture, Livestock and Rural Development, Fernando Fernández, “a demand from the sector since the wool, now in the shearing season, was a problem for farmers and, moreover, was considered a reject product with no commercial value”. “Until now, the farmer had to take it to treatment plants with the consequent added cost that this entailed”, he stressed.

For this reason, the Directorate General of Agriculture has sent a technical note addressed to the veterinary services of the regional delegations, Health Defence Associations (ADS) and collaborating entities, explaining the permitted uses of the wool to the farms.

The pilot project on the viability of Mallorcan sheep’s wool as a material applied in the industrial sector has been developed by Mallorca Rural and APAEMA, as technical support, and has been financed through the FEADER fund, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, and the Regional Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.

The next step will be to draw up a Guide to Good Agricultural Practices, in coordination with the veterinarians of the Directorate General for Agriculture, Livestock and Rural Development, which will include new agricultural activities to make use of the resource so that the wool can be used as liquid fertiliser or washed on the same farm.