Wool prices fell at yesterday's North Island sale, driven by a drop in demand and a rapid shift in the exchange rate.
Most of the wool on offer sold for about 5 percent less than the previous North Island sale. Some fine cross-bred early shorn and second shear wool was 6 to 7 percent down.
More than a quarter of the 7000 bales on offer was passed in.
New Zealand Wool Services International general manager John Dawson described it as a sharp price correction after buyers finished filling orders for China.
"We'd seen a couple of pretty pressured wool auctions and that was on the back of predominantly Chinese wanting wool shipped very quickly and we had two very strong auctions before this one and unfortunately, this correction reflects the fact that most of that wool now has been bought and is on its way to China."
Mr Dawson said the New Zealand dollar's climb against the US currency yesterday also contributed to the price decline, but wool prices were still higher than they were at the start of the season.