Alpaca fiber industry: Selling "meng" or selling "velvet"?

Alpaca is a camelid family, native to South America, and mainly lives in South American countries such as Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Argentina. Alpaca fiber can be used to produce many textile and apparel products such as coats, coats, plush shirts, scarves, carpets, and velvet. Alpaca fiber is thinner and softer than mohair, and its color is white, brown, yellowish brown or black. Its strength and warmth are much higher than wool. With the increasing popularity of alpaca fiber's fiber properties such as warmth, durability, impermeability and non-combustion, the market demand for alpaca fiber in the world has been growing continuously in recent years.

Alpaca industry in "path finding"

The shape of the alpaca is like a sheep and a camel. The image is very cute. This kind of animal, which is not rare in South America and Australia, has quickly become entertained by everyone after it has set foot on the land of China. It has become an eye-catching "beast".

However, in fact, the time when we started raising and studying alpaca in China was much earlier than the year when they passed through the Internet.

In 2001, Dong Changsheng, a professor at Shanxi Agricultural University, was awarded the “948” project of the Ministry of Agriculture and began the substantive action of introducing alpaca from Australia. After that, the Chinese government signed a protocol with the Australian government. In 2002, he first introduced 23 alpacas from Australia to China. Next, Shandong, Xinjiang, Beijing and other provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions have introduced alpaca for breeding and breeding. Until now, the scale of alpaca farming has been growing. According to the estimates of the Camel Industry Association of the camel branch of the China Animal Husbandry Association, the total number of alpaca stocks in China has exceeded 10,000.

At a time when the attention economy is popular, the alpaca has become a "net red". Whether it is the result of all parties' intentions or unintentional, it can be regarded as a "teaching plan" for a very successful market operation in the animal husbandry industry.

At the beginning of 2016, a real estate in a prefecture-level city in Sichuan opened. The developers invited 5 alpaca platforms and catwalks, which really attracted a lot of buyers and nearby people who like to watch the lively and unusual people. This kind of lively scene is still able to talk about masturbation for the developers in the small and medium-sized cities that are “very difficult to sell”.

However, the value of these five alpacas can be described as a lot of money. It is understood that these alpaca from Chongqing Lala include the time of transportation on the road, and each "exhibition fee" is 3,000 yuan per day. In this western city, the appearance fee of a beautiful model is usually 3,400 yuan a day. It can be said that in the eyes of the crowd, ten beautiful women can't match a "beast".

It is undeniable that in the early days of the development of the alpaca industry, especially the aquaculture industry, it was because of such a high so-called “exhibition fee” that the entire industry could develop so rapidly. The original practitioners mainly relied on breeding alpaca and selling alpaca for profit. Then the "Pan Men" who entered the industry mainly benefited from the rental of alpaca performance. But now, with the dramatic increase in the number of alpacas and the slow cooling of the alpaca "net red", the price of the alpaca show is also plummeting.

Judging from the “appearance fee” of the above-mentioned Chongqing alpaca, the highest has reached 10,000 yuan between 2011 and 2013, and an advance reservation is required. Nowadays, it is on call, and the price has shrunk by more than a third. Therefore, the alpaca industry is bound to find another way to continue to develop.

Recently, some media reported that the Australian boy was eager to get a puppy as a pet, but he did bring him a little alpaca. Although we are not sure that this report is not true, it is certain that there is at least a lot of water.

From a scientific point of view, the alpaca, an animal belonging to the camelid family, is not as docile as we imagined, and there is a very special "bad habit." Once they are in a bad mood or their temper is coming up, they will spit at people. I believe that readers who often come into contact with camels will understand that the feeling of being sprinkled with camels is unforgettable. According to a visitor who was unfortunately spit by the alpaca, the feeling is like being smashed by a pile of broken chalk, and these mucus-like things have a strong pungent "amaranth".

Therefore, it is basically a fantasy to raise an alpaca as a pet, which is not realistic. At the same time, the pet route is obviously not suitable for the healthy development of the alpaca industry. Over the years, the myth of wealth weaved with various foreign exotic animals has emerged in an endless stream, but the final outcome can only be described as miserable. For example, Dutch pigs, coypus, and rabbits... especially the "chief" coypu, which has become an unforgettable memory of a generation.

Therefore, the healthy development of the alpaca industry must be based on its own practicality. From the perspective of foreign countries, the meat, skin and plush fiber of alpaca have been widely exploited.

It is understood that the alpaca fluff is extremely fine, and there is almost no fiber for taking hair. It is not as tingling as most other animal fibers, and can be blended with sheep (wool) wool or other worsted yarns with good insulation and heat retention. The alpaca fluff fiber contains no oil and lanolin, no odor, is a hollow fiber, has good elasticity, is not easily deformed, does not stagnate water, and is also resistant to solar radiation. The clothing made from alpaca fluff is light and soft, and the most special is that it does not pilling and does not shrink or fade after washing.

It is precisely because alpaca fluff fibers have such excellent fiber characteristics that world-renowned clothing brands such as Louis Vuitton, Muji, Prada, Uniqlo and ZARA are already using alpaca fluff fabrics to make high-end clothing. product.

Undoubtedly, with the vigorous development of alpaca breeding industry in China, the number of alpaca deposits has been increasing. In the past, the method of selling seeds and renting alpaca to obtain benefits has not been able to satisfy the development of the entire industry. More and more ambitious people in the alpaca industry are beginning to realize that in-depth development and utilization of alpaca fluff fibers will be the inevitable way for the future alpaca industry.

Small people in the "confusion" taking fiber

The environmental conditions of the alpaca origin are poor, and the alpaca need to withstand strong ultraviolet radiation, thin air and biting cold wind. In particular, the local temperature difference between day and night is extremely high, and the temperature can be lowered to -18-20 °C in the evening and 15-18 °C in the daytime. However, it is these harsh natural conditions that the alpaca gradually has a higher adaptability and rough feeding ability in the process of evolution. Among them, the bright and thick plush fiber that they grow to resist the cold and the sun radiation is really a gift of nature.

However, it is not an easy task to make alpaca plush to make textile and apparel products. The scales of alpaca plush fibers are smoother than wool, and the scales are very similar to fine wool, but the edges are not as thick as fine wool. In their place of origin, alpacas are usually cut once every two years, and there is a regular weak knot on each of their fluff fibers due to seasonal drought.

However, after the alpaca has been introduced into China for captivity, this phenomenon will be basically affected. Moreover, the “enthusiasm” of Chinese aquaculture workers for alpaca shearing work is very high, and it is generally cut once a year. But even so, an adult alpaca can only produce 3- to 5 kilograms of plush fiber per year depending on the size of the body.

According to our traditional model for the cultivation of woolen animals, the solution to the small amount of fluffy fiber produced by animals is nothing more than expanding the scale of farming. However, the breeding and expansion of alpaca is relatively more difficult. The llama is mature at 3 years old, and the ewes are sexually mature at the age of one. Although the average life expectancy of the alpaca is about 25 years old, the alpaca produces only one child a year, and the gestation period lasts for 11 and a half months. Moreover, it is a single-born animal, and one child can only produce one. From the current point of view, there is no report of alpaca twins in the world. It is understood that even in Australia, where the aquaculture industry is very mature, there are almost no thousands of alpaca farms.

The low yield and low quantity have determined that the alpaca fluff industry is unlikely to explode in a short period of time, but only a niche product in the fiber industry.

The ethnic minority areas in western Sichuan are on the edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The altitude is high, the ultraviolet rays are strong, and the temperature difference between day and night is almost the same as that of the South American Andes, the origin of the alpaca, only slightly lower. The people here have always had the habit of breeding yak, goats and other livestock. Around 2014, the Tibetan guy Lausanne Jinmei sold his own yak and sheep and introduced a number of alpacas from the field for breeding. The move caused quite a stir in the local area, but it was also unanimously opposed by his family. The reason is also very simple. How many sheep and how many yak in your family in the traditional Tibetan custom, it means how much wealth your family has. There is no yak and sheep in the Lausanne family. There is only a group of alpacas, which cannot be found even in the local area.

After raising alpaca, in addition to occasionally looking for him to rent a few alpaca for commercial performance, in the short term, there is no economic benefit. However, in 2015, Lausanne combined the cut alpaca fluff fibers with the local yak hair fibers and made dozens of beds of alpaca plush quilts using traditional Tibetan weaving techniques. What he didn't think of was that tourists who came to travel in less than a month snapped up. From that time on, Lausanne really realized the value of alpaca plush fibers. In the past, he took the alpaca out and took a photo with the tourists. He charged 20 pieces at the same price as the local photo of the white yak. Now, Lausanne has stopped letting alpacas "appear" but let them live quietly on the meadows of the western Sichuan Plateau, hoping that they will be able to produce more plush in June and July next year.

This small-scale farming in Lausanne does not have much effect on the alpaca industry. In fact, at present, China's alpaca industry, including the breeding of alpaca, the production of alpaca fluff and the production of alpaca fiber textile and apparel products, have not yet formed a real scale and industrialization. According to the situation of the China Alpaca Industry Federation, in the past two years, large-scale alpaca farms built in China have been mainly distributed in Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Shanxi, Shandong, Hebei, and Shaanxi. There are only over 100 investors in the alpaca breeding industry, of which a considerable proportion are real estate developers.

An alpaca farm in a certain area of ​​Shandong originally introduced 20 alpacas, 18 females and two males from Australia. At most, the number of stocks reached more than 100, but most of them were sold to zoos all over the country. The reason is that an alpaca can be worth a car. According to the farmer's introduction, even if the price of alpaca has declined in the past two years, an adult alpaca can still sell for 60,000 yuan and 70,000 yuan, and the alpaca is worth 40,000 yuan.

In fact, this alpaca farmer is also very clear that the price per kilogram of alpaca plush fiber ranges from 100-300 dollars. In the international market, a small vest with alpaca plush fiber has a price of one or two thousand yuan, and the content of alpaca plush fiber is not very high. But unfortunately, because of the scale, the annual production of alpaca fluff fibers is only two or three hundred kilograms, so the business of selling hair alone is far less profitable than selling alpaca directly.

At the other end of the alpaca industry chain, many woolen textile companies and garment processing plants are struggling to find stable and adequate alpaca plush fiber suppliers. The alpaca farm in Shandong is also considered to be a medium-sized scale in China. However, the production of a few hundred kilograms of alpaca plush fiber per year cannot meet the needs of even a small factory. The alpaca plush fiber produced by the farm is basically made into a textile and garment product by itself. Because of the small amount, the alpaca plush fiber has good performance, and the product is generally sold out in a circle of friends.

The alpaca plush fiber belonging to the niche product will inevitably face all kinds of confusion in the process of development. This can not help but remind people of the famous Italian denim clothing brand "Di Sai", many people may not know about it, but when it comes to holes, raw edges, some places are still white, looks broken The rotten old jeans are believed to have an impression. This is the style of the "Dièµ›" jeans. At the beginning of the establishment, these traces of manual and old work were not recognized by consumers and even complained. However, "Di Sai" does not cater to the public's taste, but only the sales target is defined as a small group that pursues fashion and wildness. It is precisely because of this unique and unrepeatable style, the "Di Sai" denim clothing series, although expensive, is still sought after by a small number of people, and then popular in the world.

The situation of alpaca fluff fibers is somewhat similar to that faced by Desai. That is to say, because the output of raw materials is small, alpaca fluff fibers and their textile and apparel products also need to take the path of niche. Targeting consumers to a small number of consumers, for example, Peru’s famous alpaca clothing brand “Kuna” has targeted its target sales group from 30 to 50 years old, with disposable income and sheep. Camel hair goods are people who are some kind of status symbol. From the analysis of China's actual situation, consumers who want to buy alpaca plush fiber products may also be few, because the general alpaca plush fiber textile and clothing products are quite expensive.

Winning only the niche may be a way for the alpaca plush fiber industry to get rid of the niche confusion. As a fiber that currently has limited raw material production, it is obviously unrealistic to fantasize about the needs of most consumers. Therefore, the key is whether alpaca plush fiber and its textile and apparel products can win the favor of a small number of consumers.

"Wandering" taking into account the quality of

As with all wool fibers, the fineness, length, and curl straightness of alpaca fluff fibers are the basis for directly judging their quality. At present, the condition of alpaca plush fiber raised in China is roughly 15-20/um, the hair length is 20-40/um, and the uniformity is better than wool, that is, the dispersion coefficient is lower than that of wool, and the short hair rate is also Lower than wool. Therefore, it is not difficult to see that the quality of alpaca fluff fibers is generally superior.

For the textile industry, the most worrying thing about quality is the improvement of the hybridization of animals that produce raw fiber raw materials. In this respect, we have learned from the past and have learned a lot. In order to improve the production of wool and cashmere, some animal husbandry and veterinary experts began to cross sheep, the so-called "variety improvement." The result has indeed greatly increased the production of wool and cashmere, but the quality has also dropped significantly. Nowadays, many cashmere are thicker than the previous wool fibers, which directly reduces the international competitiveness of China's cashmere textiles and affects the healthy development of the entire industry.

At the expense of fiber quality to increase fiber production, it seems to be an option for livestock experts to complete research projects. But for the textile industry, this is definitely not the small thing that some scholars call "the loss of the East, the harvest of the mulberry", but the big problem of "drinking thirst quenching thirst" and "diving the grave".

At present, for the problem of low production of alpaca fluff fibers, some experts and scholars in animal husbandry are beginning to “make up”. It is understood that only two universities in the southwestern region have begun preparatory work and project declaration for the improvement of alpaca varieties. This is worthy of the attention of all parties in the alpaca plush fiber industry, especially the relevant government departments.

In addition, because alpaca fluff fibers are easily confused with cashmere and wool, it is not easy to separate, and the price of alpaca fluff fibers is higher. Therefore, in the domestic market of alpaca fluff fiber textiles, there are many unqualified quality problems such as “six-filled” fiber component content, or even simply “nothing to be born”.

In a well-known stage domestic electricity commodity, people found a Wengxiao E claims to be 100% alpaca fiber fluff produced women's coats. Since the price is nearly 2,000 yuan, although Ms. Weng is interested in this dress for ten minutes, she is still cautious when she buys it.

She consulted online salespeople about alpaca plush fibers and their clothing. Also opened the consumer evaluation page under this alpaca fleece coat. What she didn't think of was that this dress sold more than 200 pieces in this online store in just one month. More "important" is that consumers who buy one have no comment or bad review. One of the consumers wrote: "This coat is very thin, but when you buy it, you feel it is full of heat and feels warmer than a thick down jacket." In the cold winter, this short comment immediately impressed Miss Aung, who was afraid of wearing thick clothes and could not show a beautiful curve.

Actually, however, since the surface smoothness alpaca poor cohesion, expensive, less pure spinning tops generally sheep (made from staple fiber strips) blend. In the case of alpaca plush fiber fabric coats, it is generally used for warp yarns using worsted yarns, and weft yarns are made of alpaca yarns. The main purpose of this is to reduce costs. In short, there are almost no textile and apparel products made of alpaca plush fiber purely woven fabrics on the market. Even with such a product, the price is far less than the 2,000 yuan can buy.

Since the introduction of alpaca from Australia to China in 2002, it has been developed for more than a decade. However, there has not been a real large-scale farming. The processing and production of alpaca plush fibers have not yet formed a real industrialization. Therefore, in fact, at present, the alpaca industry in China is still in its infancy.

However, the value of alpaca plush fiber is indeed not to be ignored. A few years ago, Mr. Liu, a real estate businessman in Liaoning, spent huge sums of money and also packaged a Boeing 747-400 large transport aircraft to purchase hundreds of alpacas from Australia for breeding. At present, according to the market price of about 1,500 yuan per kilogram of alpaca plush fiber, Mr. Liu's alpaca can bring nearly 2 million yuan in revenue per year.

At present, the bottleneck of China's alpaca plush fiber industry still lies in the shortage of raw materials. If China's textile and garment enterprises can gradually start using domestic alpaca plush fiber fabrics for clothing products, it is believed that in the near future, the amount of alpaca stocks in China will continue to increase, and the production of alpaca plush fibers will increase year by year. The price will drop year by year, and the application range of alpaca plush fiber textile and apparel products will gradually expand.