Introduction

Marion Tviland is the Director Wool in Norilia in Norway. In this episode Marion talks about what is special about Norwegian wool and the Norwegian wool industry. Marion also has a strong background in Marketing and in this discussion she explains why it is so important to tell the wool story. 

About Marion Tviland

Marion Tviland is Director Wool in Norilia AS, a subsidiary of the Norwegian farmer cooperative Nortura SA. Her department handles nearly 80% of the annual Norwegian clip of approximately 4 200 tons of greasy wool. Marion grew up on a farm in Southern Norway having forestry as the main revenue base, but where sheep played an important role adding to the income. Thus Marion has firsthand experience from sheep farming, helping out with taking care of the sheep during winter and lambing season in spring when the animals are indoor, harvesting of forage in summer, and taking the animals up to the mountains in the beginning of summer and then down again when autumn starts. Marion has a Master degree from Norwegian University of Life Sciences and worked for many years with category management, product development, marketing and sales of grocery goods like chocolate and cheese in Norwegian companies like Orkla and Tine. It was not until two years ago, starting as Director Wool in January 2016, that Marion once again got involved with sheep farming and wool. Knowing about sheep farming, but not that much about wool when she started, the last two years she has been busy trying to learn as much as possible about the wool fiber, Norwegian wool and use of wool in carding, spinning, knitting and weaving and at the same time using her past experience to develop the wool sector in Norway.