Ávila

As an absolute fan of natural fabrics, I have several wool sweaters in my closet saved like gold because of how pretty they are, how warm they are, and how expensive they cost. Paradoxically, and although wool garments have significantly higher prices than others made with synthetic fabrics, the devaluation of wool at source is a worrying reality for livestock professionals. So in Martiherrero, a town of less than 400 inhabitants in Ávila, they have had an idea: covering the umbrellas of the municipal swimming pool with sheep wool from local farmers. Umbrellas made of wool. For this small-scale pilot project, they have used more than 160 kilograms of raw wool which, after selection and conditioning, is already working as a covering for the facility’s umbrellas, as collected by the Royal Spanish Federation of Select Livestock Associations. The initiative is called “Shadow of Origin” and behind it is the Martiherrero town hall and the Kerbest Foundation. Parasols covered with wool. RFEAGAS Why is it important. Because in summer the farmers have to shear their sheep and the calculations don’t work out: like Avicom Cooperative tellsthe shearing cost is 1.5 euros per sheep and the price that the farmer receives for the wool of the most common breeds, such as the Assaf, the Churra or the Castilian, is around 5 cents per kilo. The average wool per sheep is 2.3 kilos. The use of wool for clothing is not profitable in this scenario, so we must take a look and find new uses for this valuable sheep by-product. The problem is enormous, as much as the volume of sheep in Spain, absolute leader in the EU with 24% of the total: according to the MAPA economic indicators report for meat sheep and goats (2025)the sheep census was 13.47 million heads in 2024, 0.89% less than the previous year. And it is not something specific: the price of wool in Spain is at historic lows and has not raised its head since the pandemic, as They explained at the table Rethinking wool just a couple of months ago. Context. The fall in the price of wool is explained by a combination of causes: China was the main destination market before the pandemic, reaching to take 70% of the offer. However, with the pandemic, exports slowed down and there was excess stock, as ASAJA explains. Shortly after, the Chinese market was partially closed after the sheeppox outbreaks in Spain happened since 2022. It has also caused damage the australian wool competition. However and as detailed by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Environmentthe main production of sheep is meat and milk, leaving wool in the background. In detail. The idea of ​​wearing a woolen garment in summer may seem crazy, but sheep hair is a magnificent thermal insulator: the thermal conductivity of wool is 0.0324 and 0.0436 W/mKfigures that meet the regulatory standards for thermal insulation in construction and also offer good acoustic performance. In other words, the same thing works for a sweater, an umbrella or to insulate a building. Because wool is also good fireproof materialwhich brings out the colors of some synthetic insulators that emit volatile organic compounds. Yes, but. The project has its technical and economic reason for being framed within the circular economy, but its scale is minimal: they have only used 160 kilos compared to the more than 20,000 annual tons of wool that Spain produces in total (or the 9,500 tons of entrefine wool alone, the most produced variety), according to the MAP. On the other hand, the previous processes necessary for its use as a coating make the operation as is not profitable with the figures that the current market manages. A larger scale replication would require sustained public or private investment over time. In Xataka | A silent phenomenon is brewing in Madrid: people who go to live in Valladolid and return to work by train In Xataka | A town in Segovia with 3,700 residents has its own language with centuries of history. The reason: doing business Cover | Fadi Al Shami and Martin Schmidli