The PNW Wool Producers Cooperative has Officially Incorporated

It has been a long journey, but the PNW Wool Producers Cooperative has officially incorporated. So what is it, and how did it begin? At its core, the cooperative reflects a classic story of producers coming together to create scale and solve shared challenges within their industry.

In late 2021, sheep and wool producers in the Pacific Northwest approached NABC staff with growing concerns about marketing wool in the region. Limited processing infrastructure and persistently low wool prices had created a significant bottleneck, resulting in a surplus of coarse wool. Bales were accumulating in barns, and in some cases, wool was even ending up in landfills. With support from the USDA’s Rural Cooperative Development Grant and the Washington State Department of Agriculture’s Southwest Washington business development funding, NABC facilitated the formation of the Pacific Northwest Sheep Wool Producers Committee to address these challenges.

At the same time, a promising domestic buyer of coarse wool emerged: Holy Lamb Organics, a natural bedding company located in southwest Washington. Holy Lamb Organics was eager to source wool locally, but the infrastructure needed to purchase wool at the scale required did not yet exist. As a result, their ability to buy wool from regional producers was limited.

The committee met monthly to explore potential solutions. Early discussions made it clear that achieving meaningful impact would require scale and a multi-state approach. The service area was defined as Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. To better understand regional capacity and producer interest, a survey was distributed to sheep ranchers across these three states, gathering information on flock size, wool types, and production practices.

Survey results informed the PNW 2024 Sheep Wool Prefeasibility Study, which recommended the formation of a tri-state wool pool and the development of regional wool processing infrastructure in southwest Washington. This was followed by the creation of the PNW Sheep Wool Producers Cooperative Organizational Development Plan. As this plan took shape, the group recognized that multiple organizations were already working on processing infrastructure development. Rather than duplicate those efforts, the cooperative chose to focus on aggregation, distribution, and marketing.

Under this model, the cooperative will create a branded Pacific Northwest wool identity, pool wool from producers across the three-state region, ship it to an existing scour facility for processing, and then transport the finished wool back to Holy Lamb Organics in southwest Washington for sale. This approach directly addresses the immediate need to move stockpiled wool while adding value to coarse wool for PNW ranchers.

In early 2026, the PNW Wool Producers Cooperative was officially incorporated. Its board includes representatives from the Washington State Sheep Producers Association, the Oregon Sheep Growers Association, and the Idaho Wool Growers Association. An operations plan is currently under development, and the cooperative aims to begin operations within the year.