Italian luxury clothing billionaire Pier Luigi Loro Piana is urging Otago's super-fine wool growers to persevere in the face of low prices, and think globally.
Dr Loro Piana, who is deputy chairman of Italian clothing company Loro Piana, has spent the past two days in the region with a group of international journalists.
Super-fine merino wool growers had ''a gold mine in their hands'', but had to market carefully, think long-term, and not rely on China for growth, he said.
''To buy wool is easy; to produce wool is very, very difficult.
''Share the risk among the different customers around the world that understand quality - that is absolutely a guarantee for your future.''
The group has visited Earnscleugh and Otematata Stations in the past two days, and last night attended a function in Jack's Point, near Queenstown, where the company presented an award for the finest bale of wool produced by New Zealand and Australian woolgrowers last year.
Loro Piana has been using merino fabric for clothing in a partnership with The New Zealand Merino Company since 1997.
The New Zealand Merino Company chief executive John Brakenridge said a ''huge'' increase in production of super-fine wool in Australia had put downward pressure on prices, while on the demand side, consumers were buying fewer suits in a trend towards ''casualisation''.
It was crucial for super-fine wool growers to move away from being commodity producers, and instead take their fibre and ''wrap stories around it'' to tell consumers.
The company's relationship with Loro Piana was crucial because it was the single-largest buyer of extra-fine merino wools in Australia and New Zealand.
Dr Loro Piana and his brother, Sergio, sold an 80% stake in Loro Piana to French billionaire Bernard Arnault's LVMH for 2 billion ($NZ3.21 billion) in July last year.
Sergio died in December, but Dr Loro Piana holds an estimated 10% stake in the clothing firm.
