Fashion
On the world market, the fibre of suri alpaca is coveted for its lustre and softness by the high fashion textile industry and today commands a price sometimes double that for huacaya. Suri fibre has the softness of cashmere, lustre of silk, warmth and featherweight of goose down and durability of wool. It blends well with wool and other fine fibre, including silk, and yarn made from suri fibre can be knitted, crocheted or woven.

Suri fibre is used for:

• High fashion fabric for men's and women's designer clothing
• Luxury apparel, coats, sweaters and unique decorator items
• Specialty interior fabrics and textiles

Suri is new, luxurious and scarce - all the ingredients of exclusivity, all the ingredients for continuing raw fibre demand and good returns to growers.

Worldwide, suri fibre is most commonly made up into overcoats that are brushed to bring out its natural lustre. When the fashion trade demands suri, the orders are hard to fill and the price increases rapidly. The majority is sold to Italy, with smaller markets being USA, Europe and Japan.

In Australia, some enterprising and highly skilled breeders in Queensland are hand spinning suri fleece to produce gossamer-thin thread for lacework shawls and even wedding dresses.

International fibre markets
For 200 years commercial natural fibre processing and manufacturing was centred in Europe, with a small but high quality Japanese industry and a poorer quality cotton-focused industry in India (not forgetting Kashmiri woollens).

In the last 25 years, everything has changed. Natural fibres have seen strong, and in many instances overwhelming challenges from man-made fibres, the resultant by-products of (and often subsidised by) the petrochemical industry. China has emerged as a giant manufacturer and exporter. Many of the top European and Japanese mills have shifted their noble fibre yarn production offshore - China, Peru, India and Korea being the major centres. The third-world mills are now using their European equipment and processing technology to vertically integrate; delivering lower priced finished fashion products to the West which has seriously eroded the middle and even upper markets of the traditional European mills.

Mill technology advances have made greater demands on natural fibres to perform, often at change rates which outstrip genetic/breeding improvement gains.

Traditional marketing of natural fibres and sourcing has changed dramatically. Natural fibres are increasingly being positioned at the top end of the market, pushed there by the cost of raw material production and processing. However, despite all this confusion of change, demand for the noble fibres (ultra-fine wools, cashmere, alpaca, kid mohair, baby camel, yak etc.) has remained constant and new and rich opportunities are opening for niche fibres.

So why breed for natural woollen fibres? With our history of excellence in wool production and the technology gains made in the wool sector, Australian alpaca breeders have a rich inheritance. Taking South American genes and overlaying Australian fibre breeding technology gives Australian alpaca breeders a natural fibre advantage over other countries. We have superior breeding benchmarking and performance measurements that third world countries cannot afford to introduce.