Cashmere and mohair quality and value adding potential by SMME’s

Abstract

Rare, luxury or speciality animal fibres have an exclusively and characteristic, that are rarely associated with other fibres. Their scarcity is due to the fact that they are difficult to produce on a large scale, because of climatic conditions and/or genetic factors. Each animal fibre is often characterised by its own fibre properties, such as fineness, softness, warmth, lightness or lustre etc. making it unique in processing and wear performance, notably comfort and softness. These fibres include Goat hair (e.g. mohair and cashmere), Camel hair, Llama hair (alpaca), Vicuna and Angora hair from the Angora rabbit. During the past two decades, consumers have exploited these unique and highly desirable fibre properties to their limit, causing the world textile industry to go through a revolutionary change, moving towards more comfortable, lighter, casual, and easy care type of garments. Manufacturers have had no alternative but to go for lighter fabrics with finer fibres (e.g. micro fibres) with a soft appealing handle and added comfort. For this reason, cashmere, being the second finest animal fibre produced in fairly large quantities and also mohair has become two of the worlds most sought after animal fibres today. South Africa has a vast number of goats, of which some 1.2 million are Angora goats and some 4,5 million are indigenous goats such as the Boer, Savannah and traditional goats. There are also some 1000 imported cashmere goats.