Wool certificates provide information to the users and buyers of wool. Every wool bale offered at auction is tested to confirm the wool’s quality and characteristics. Nearly all wool is bought and sold with an IWTO test certificate.

         IWTO licenses laboratories around the world to issue IWTO test certificates, the “gold standard” in the industry. These wool-testing laboratories are audited annually and conform to the international standards set by their local standardisation body. The IWTO laboratories test the wool to international standards and according to the wool testing specifications set out in the International Wool Textile Organisation’s White and Red Books.

         Wool is a natural fibre and each batch will vary largely in length, colour, fineness and content. Testing is performed with a grab sample, a sample of the wool taken from the centre of the bale.