Caoirigh
Irish sheep farmer
Caoirigh is a sheep farm, wool store and scouring plant based on our family farm outside Tuam Co. Galway we supply 100% Irish wool to the crafters of Ireland. All our wool is traceable back to the farm of origin and scoured in a chemical free way for you to enjoy in a creative way.
Caoirigh was established in 2019 and since then we have built our operations from Zero to where we are today. We the ability to look at whatever problems we come up against as an outer the box solution, and our biggest challenge to date has been the effluent generated from wool scouring but I am happy to say that we have created a concrete Product that can utilize some of the effluent generated from wool scouring and some of these products will be launched at the upcoming Galway wool Meitheal this year.
But there's still more work to be done and more value to be added to this current effluent over time with more R&D still on going we intend on put in place a wool scouring Zero waste operation. Bring on the future.
What is so amazing about working with Irish wool? I started out on this quest to find a way of adding value to the wool produced on our smallholding farm in the west of Ireland. I was sick of being insulted by wool wholesalers with the poor price paid for wool produced “that’s the market price” The market price is way below the production cost, that’s why I then put my WOOL thinking cap on, did a bit of research and discovered that the crafters in Ireland we’re looking for small quantities of scoured/washed wool, then covid-19 arrived so I got to work on a plan to scour/wash wool in an environmentally friendly way of doing this scouring/washing, then secured a licensed to store & scour/wash the wool. Scouring is removing the wool wax from the sheep fleece once the fleece is wax free the wool has some value and can be sold on for further processing. This is how Caoirigh came to be. Let’s see what the future holds.
Do you finish onsite? If not, is it convenient or what would be your ideal situation? Yes
Do you find that customers are becoming more interested in Irish wool? Yes people are defiantly more interested in the fibre and the quality.
On a scale of 1- 10 (1 being the lowest and 10 excellent) how much do you think your business has improved in the below areas as a result of good working practices and environmental standards?
Waste Production - 7 (off-cuts, production)
Plastic Pollution - 6 (packaging)
Water Waste - 9 (dyeing and finishing)
Energy Consumption - 6 (shipping, machinery etc)
Do you have any hero farmers or people in your supply chain you would like to highlight? Yes, the Galway wool co-op group for their ongoing work in the presentation of their wool for sale and their ongoing promotion of Galway wool. It is a pleasure to work with these amazing group of farmers and to stock Galway wool. Thank you all on a job well done and we look forward to a long working friendship at Caoirigh into the future. Evin Higgins (Caoirigh)