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Farmers want a piece of the Hobbit action

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Farmers want a piece of the Hobbit action

3News NZ

The set of the film The Hobbit near the town of Matamata (AAP)

The set of the film The Hobbit near the town of Matamata (AAP)

Sheep farmers hope to get their own gains from Hobbit mania – increased international demand for all things kiwi.

Federated Farmers spokeswoman Jeanette Maxwell says there's a big marketing opportunity off the back of today's world premiere.

"Not everyone will be able to afford a trip to New Zealand but they can experience New Zealand by what they eat or wear, including wool," she said.

But there's one aspect of the premiere Ms Maxwell isn't happy about.

The red carpet is synthetic.

"It seems a lost opportunity, given the flock of international media here."

NZN

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Comments

3/12/2012 11:02:44 a.m.

Mike wrote:

NZ has looked at red carpet made in wool before.

The problem is no NZ manufacturer will make it at an affordable price so its no option at all.

While wool may be fine with some natural resistance to marking etc, add moisture and it smells like an old sheep. While the weather treated Wellington to fine weather, it can't be guaranteed. ie wool carpet is not suited to using outside where it can get wet.

It may be possible the red carpet was new for this red carpet event, or someone put it in storage from the last time. In general there isn't a huge demand for red carpet and its one of the least popular colours for NZ carpet manufacturers. I remember doing some research on red carpet myself and at that stage there was only '1' woolen red carpet in NZ, and it was very pricey (50 ounce commercial cutpile), and the wrong red (more a German red, ie more orange) for red carpet.