Alpaca alternative appeals to NZ farmers - sportstextiles: Lea SportsTextiles

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Alpaca alternative appeals to NZ farmers

19/11/2013
It’s a long way off the country’s sheep population of more than 31 million head, but New Zealand’s farmers believe they now have a combined alpaca herd of up to 30,000 animals.

Always bred principally for the fibre they produce, which is hollow and light in weight, wool from alpacas is now being exported from New Zealand, and a collective called the Pacific Alpacas fibre pool has grown up.

Buyers overseas have bought alpaca wool from New Zealand.

One farmer, Brenda McLean from Milton, near Dunedin, recently told local media that people in New Zealand had started buying alpacas as pets, but that demand for the fibre meant that keeping a herd of the animals was becoming economically viable.


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