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Rural Industries Research & Development Corporation
by Ian J Knox and Peter R Lamb
February 2002 RIRDC Publication No 02/016 RIRDC Project No GIT-1A
The long-term prospects of the Australian alpaca industry will depend on the production and marketing of a high value fibre, which meets processors and consumers requirements. Australia's alpaca industry is still evolving but now has the capacity to produce sufficient quantities of fibre for small scale commercial processing. The current Australian alpaca herd stands at approximately 30,000 head starting from original live animal imports in 1988. Australia currently has the largest Alpaca herd outside of South America. Many of the decisions made concerning fibre type will have a significant impact upon the future fleece type and products of the industry.
World production is currently 4,000 tons but Michell D (1998) ‘The Alpaca Trace’, Proceedings The Australian Alpaca Industry National Conference ‘Crossing the boundaries, July 1998, Fremantle, suggests that world alpaca production needs to double to command the same attention as cashmere and insulate itself from the volatile fibre commodity cycles. South American classing standards are artisan based with the skill passed on from mother to daughter with no objective measurements involved.
The Australian Wool Industry has developed classing standards based upon objective clip preparation (OCP) and has developed measurements to aid processors in the prediction of Hauteur and Fibre Diameter in tops.
The Australian Alpaca Industry will need to develop a similar structure, based on the use of objective clip preparation standards, to obtain a competitive advantage against the low labour cost industries of South America. The production of highly specified top will allow Australian alpaca fibre to command a premium over South American fibre at the higher value end of the market. Much of the international trade has been based on undifferentiated bulk fibre at very low prices.
The industry is now at a crossroad; it is somewhere between a vibrant animal based industry and a commercial fibre industry. It is not yet clear whether this transition will take place without major structural changes, which could see dislocation of many smaller breeders. This project has attempted to draw the importance of producing a quality fibre to the attention of Australia’s alpaca producers.
By conducting hands-on fibre workshops in all states of Australia, attended by over 300 people, it is considered that the profile of fibre, and the importance of clip preparation standards have indeed been raised. Processing trials conducted by CSIRO, produced positive results, with no major processing difficulties being encountered. Areas for additional work would be the investigation of less severe scouring conditions than used for wool and the optimisation of settings on the spinning frame, including twist, to maximise the performance of the longer, more slippery, fibre.
The measured and classer estimated values of fibre diameter indicated that classers had a limited ability to accurately assess mean diameter. Because of this the project was revised to assess the ability and potential advantages of an instrument such as Fleecescan to assist with classing the clip for diameter. Subjective classing was found to be adequate for dividing fleeces into a few micron categories with considerable room for error. The main advantages of using an instrument such as Fleecescan would be for producing lines to exact customer specifications and for feeding accurate fibre quality information back to the grower for breeding purposes.
Shed preparation would still be essential, and producers could be encouraged to separate fleeces (such as fine or medium lines) that were deemed suitable for measurement.
A code of practice of minimum clip preparation standards was developed for the industry. It was endorsed by the National Committee of the Australian Alpaca Association (NATCOM) in July 2001, and will be amended as seen appropriate by the industry. Significant progress has been made towards the introduction of an Alpaca Fibre Classing course, and extensive discussions have been held with the AAA Education committee and the Rural Training Council of Australia (RTCA). The Competency Training Institute of Australia has completed a scoping study, commissioned by RTCA.
It is anticipated that a nationally recognised course will be now developed by RTCA.
The Australian Alpaca Industry faces a challenging future; continuing extension to enhance producer understanding of fibre characteristics and processor needs will help to ensure long term survival of the industry. For processing performance and fabric qualities the messages are very clear and similar to wool. Fibre diameter is overwhelmingly the most important property. Length is important but the key requirement is to avoid short and over-long fibres. Diameter distribution is of modest importance (with 5 units of CV(D) being worth 1 m) but there is a much bigger range of diameters present in some alpacas than in sheep. Strength does not seem to be an issue as tender alpaca is quite rare. Contamination, in all its forms must be avoided. Colour will always be an issue but for a commercial worsted mill colours other than white are potential contaminants and destroy flexibility.
The great opportunity for the Australian Alpaca Industry is to use the knowledge and instruments available for wool to maximise the rate of improvement and the market perception of Australian alpaca fibre.
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