According to H&M’s website, the company has decided to purchase wool from other countries until Australia can guarantee mulesing-free merino wool.

“We decided to stop sourcing wool from growers still using this practice,” a spokeswoman for H&M told The Local, stressing that the company did not have a blanket ban on all Australian wool.

The animal rights lobby group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has complained that mulesing, a surgical procedure carried out on merino to prevent susceptibility to a disease known as flystrike, is inhumane and ought to be phased out.

The group accuses Australian growers of backing down on a 2005 promise to stop the practice by 2010.

But representatives from Australia’s wool growing community dispute PETA’s assertions about progress in phasing out mulesing.

They contend that PETA has distorted the facts about Australia’s work to stop the practice and are heading to Stockholm to take their message directly to H&M.

Don Hamblin, the chairman of the Australian Wool and Sheep Industry Task Force stressed his members are wholeheartedly committed to the process.

“We hope to explain to our retailers that Australian wool growers are fair dinkum in their commitment to meeting the 2010 deadline, and that our research company Australian Wool Innovation will have alternatives available to woolgrowers post 2010,” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

“The PETA campaign is totally incorrect, they’ve said that the Australian wool industry has already reneged on its commitment to the 2010 phase out of mulesing, and that is totally incorrect,” he added.

In confirming the delegation’s impending arrival, Australian Embassy spokesperson David Jessup told The Local that the visit was “designed to provide Swedish retailers with more information about Australia’s wool and sheep industry.”

Jessup confirmed that H&M was on the list of retailers scheduled to meet with the delegation, but refrained from naming any other companies on the delegation’s agenda.