Moisture Specification
Commercial tolerances for water content in animal hair provide a fixed percentage for calculating trade weight. The wool regain allowance is set at eighteen point twenty five percent for scoured wool in many international markets. This is the baseline.
Calculation Method
Buyers apply this percentage to the dry weight of the wool to find the amount they must pay for. Using the wool regain allowance transforms a variable biological product into a stable commodity. If a lot is delivered with twenty percent moisture, the buyer only pays for the weight as if it had eighteen point twenty five percent.
This protects the purchaser from paying for water.
Quality Impact
High levels of moisture can lead to the growth of mold or mildew during long sea voyages. Monitoring the actual moisture versus the wool regain allowance is a safety requirement for shipping. Too much water also makes the fibre harder to process in the spinning mill.
It affects the tension and the break strength of the yarn.
Supply Chain
Every player from the farmer to the garment maker uses these numbers to track inventory. The wool regain allowance is the foundation of the pricing structure in the global wool auctions. It ensures that a kilogram of wool in Australia is the same amount of material as a kilogram of wool in England.
Reliability in these figures sustains the global trade in luxury fibres.
