Does generic marketing of strong wool work? That appears to be at the heart of a dispute between Wool Partners International (WPI) and the National Council of Wool Interests.
Last week the National Council of Wool Interests criticised the WPI for refusing to pay what it calls a "royalty on the use of (the International Wool Textile Organisation's) intellectual property", but which Wool Partners calls a levy.
Elders Primary Wool pays the levy, with Primary Wool Co-operative chairman Bay de Latour saying he supports any efforts to raise the global awareness of the fibre.
The chairman of the National Council of Wool Interests, Stephen Fookes, accused WPI of trying "to destroy any potential to unify the industry and to improve returns to all sectors".
But WPI has refused to pay, saying no-one was consulted and the marketing it funded did not fit its integrated supply chain model.
The 0.25c a kg charge would have cost it $100,000 a year.
Mr de Latour said he was excited about some of the promotional activities the IWTO was funding, saying there was already evidence architects were changing fabrics in buildings to wool as a result of the IWTO's work.
He also said the levy to fund the $500,000 spent so far was one-off.
WPI is asking its growers to pay a 3% wool market development levy.
Chief executive Iain Abercrombie declined to comment on what he called a further attack on WPI.
Mr Fookes said his council in March tried to reignite global demand for wool through a variety of projects.
Research found that brand identification in floor coverings rated low in importance in Europe and the United States.
In addition, global test marketing programmes showed generic promotion rated highly.
From this, the council and IWTO have launched two projects, one in which 14 international architects were invited to Christchurch and shown the merits of wool textiles.
The results of this project would be passed on to others in the interior design field.
The second stage was to present the findings to an IWTO congress held recently in Paris.
It was also supporting the Prince Charles Wool Campaign which has attracted support from some of the world's largest retail companies, including Marks and Spencer, Debenhams, Harvey Nicols and Tesco, along with significant clothing and carpet manufacturers.
"Could anything be less generic than working with the key market leaders in the textile trade?" Mr Fookes asked.