ALPACA FIBER
The fiber committee seeks to support the profitable production and use of American alpaca fiber. In the coming year we look forward to reporting results to you from work in the following areas:
Reducing barriers to entry for designers and manufacturers
Currently companies interested in using American alpaca in their products have no centralized sources for larger scale purchases and little access to information about the characteristics, availability, and pricing of the American clip. ACOA hopes to address this in several ways:
- Our Alpaca Yarn Studio can help interested manufacturers explore the use of alpaca in their products.
- ACOA will build a library of Alpaca Fiber Wholesalers that will help manufacturers find commercial-scale suppliers of American alpaca fleece.
- Starting in late 2014, our annual Estimated Fiber Production Report and market pricing information will help improve transparency for market participants.
Improving the marketability of the annual clip
ACOA will support the marketability of alpaca producers’ annual clip with a variety of efforts aimed at both helping producers deliver the best quality fiber to the marketplace and ensuring that there are viable options for bulk sales. Among our early initatives are the following:
- ACOA is developing a Fiber Husbandry and Shearing Code of Practice that will help producers manage fiber production and processing in ways that support the ultimate market value of their product.
- ACOA will maintain a calendar of fleece collection events as well as a database of commercial alpaca fiber purchases so that producers can identify the most efficient and profitable ways to market their fleece.
- ACOA will also seek to identify opportunities to support research on the characteristics of alpaca fiber to provide avenues for product differentiation or price support in the marketplace.