After nearly 40-year vigorous development, the price of wool rises repeatedly in about 1987 because of the increasing demand of wool in the world, and the depreciation of Australian dollar. In addition to that, the appreciation of NT dollar against US dollar caused the rising of imported wool cost. There are many unfavorable factors, such as the insufficiency of domestic working manpower, the surge of wages, the labor consciousness, the unwillingness to work, facing the competition of South Korea and China, and the smuggled goods flooded in the domestic market due to the policy of opening market, making our wool textile industry suffer from the unprecedented disaster. In the recent years, due to Taiwan normalized the Cross-Strait economic relations, the industry began to move the factories to China, where has lower labor-wages. Taiwan shifted itself to be the center of design, research and development. The members of the Wool Textile Industrial Association once reached over one hundred in the heyday, but at present the members only remain 23 and patron members 3, which obviously showcases how seriously the industry withered.

In order to assist the industry out of the haze, first, the Wool Textile Industrial Association starts actively to assist its members to participate in international exhibition since 2004. The members can grasp the trend of the international fashion, and learn the advanced technology at the same time. Second, because the wool industry withers and has no ability to invest in the research, the association is drawing up the plan, and expects to apply for the subsidy for assisting the industry in the technology promotion.

Furthermore, the Association hopes the government can face up the problem of "all industry joining in the association". Because of no regulation in this issue, the Association meets the bottleneck in the recruitment of members and the income of membership dues. Especially it is not fair for the non-members participating in the government procurement, and it is not a guarantee for the quality of government procurement.

As to the future, the wool industry has to realize the demand of the consumers, produce higher quality products, and separate from the low-price ones in the design, the color and the shape. Moreover, the wool industry can transfer the production of general masses products to the low-wage area, which will reduce the cost, and enhance the competitiveness. Regarding higher-quality products, the industry should strengthen the research and development, promote the design-capacity, establish brands in order to establish and integrate a top-to-bottom producing line, and has a cutting edge when competing with importing textiles.

Through the adaptation period in recent years, the wool industry has switched to producing fine yarn for conforming to the fashion trend. International Wool Secretariat (IWSA) (changed its name to the Woolmark Company in 1997) also promotes the series of cool wool products. Because the price of wool gradually rises and is stable, and the superior characteristic of wool fiber is not substitutable, which is always the consumer’s favorite, we believe the prospect of the wool textile industry is still bright after the short gloomy time.

Because of fast global information exchange people communicate frequently. Innovation of technology and information may passes to other areas quickly, and transforming into the global popularity. How to establish the pipeline, to obtain the information fast is the key to success. However because the individual enterprise is insufficient in technical and the fund resources, it needs the government’s assistance. We suggest the government should include all sectors of the domestic textile industry when considering and promoting the development of the industry. Then Taiwan can establish a bigger scale industry to compete with other countries.