AWI has reached a commercial agreement with prominent Australian agricultural products supplier, Leader Products to produce the mulesing clips.

According to the chairman of Australian Wool Innovation, Brian van Rooyen, the commercial availability of clips gives woolgrowers a tangible alternative to the practice of mulesing.

"I'm very heartened that we will be able to get this product to market almost two years ahead of the industry's 2010 deadline for the phase out of mulesing," Mr van Rooyen said in a press statement today.

"The signing of the license to produce the clips should give woolgrowers the confidence and certainty they have been looking for.

"Leader Products is an outstanding Australian company with a strong balance sheet and excellent distribution channels which should enable the clips to be accessible to every woolgrower who wants to use them."

Leader Products managing director, Bruce Dumbrell, said his company's decision to purchase the license to produce the clips was as much an ethical decision as it was a commercial one.

"Woolgrowers need to know that there are alternatives to mulesing and I'm pleased that Leader Products can be part of the solution," he said.

He said production of the plastic clips should see them available to woolgrowers in time for lamb marking in the middle of next year.