JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa, the world's second-largest exporter of apparel wool, posted record wool exports to China during the 2008/09 season, an industry body said on Monday 3 August.

Exports of unprocessed wool to the Asian nation grew 53 percent to 21.2 million kg from 14 million in the 2008/09 season, Cape Wools said in a statement.

"The total value of the wool shipped to China amounted to 622.7 million rand, which is slightly down on the previous season due to lower wool price levels," the organisation said.

It said total export volumes of partly processed wool had dropped to 27.2 million kg from 29.4 million in 2007/08.

South Africa mainly exports unprocessed wool to China, and also smaller quantities of scoured wool and wool top.

Cape Wools said exports to other countries including Italy, the Czech Republic, Germany and India had fallen due to the slowdown in retail demand for clothing caused by the global economic downturn.