Why is cashmere becoming expensive these days?

Cashmere is a very important material for apparel makers especially that cashmere is specifically used for thick jackets used during the winter. Though there are other countries that produce this material, it is but obvious that the industry is suffering from the decline of production thus resulting to a higher demand, lower supply and expensive cost of cashmere scenario.

The main reason why the cashmere wool is becoming expensive these days was the declination in the production. Meaning, farmers are experiencing a decreasing number of cashmere goats and their natural ways of producing the wool. In a CNN report, it has been pointed out that deforestation in Mongolia and over herding is one reason of the decrease in the population of cashmere goats. With lesser area for pasturing goats, there is a thinner chance of producing more cashmere.

In effect, cashmere wool from Mongolia particularly is priced more that other country-producers. But looking at the season, this type of wool is expected to increase in price over the next 6 months or so because of the coming of the winter season.

Where does cashmere wool come from?

Yesterday we talk about the first question regarding cashmere and we have answered what it is and what animal produces said wool. Today we will focus our answer more on the place cashmere wool is produced more. In the first post, we have answered that Mongolia is one of the major producers of cashmere wool and today the country is in a great challenge because of the changes of weather that in return affects the herding of cashmere goats and at the same time the production of the cashmere wool.

Aside from Mongolia, other countries in Asia, Pacific, and the Europe are also growing cashmere goats for their wool. Countries that are major producers of cashmere wool are China, Pakistan, India, Iran, Afghanistan, Turkey, and Australia. The wool these countries produce are exported to different countries as well like Japan, Italy, Scotland, and England fabric makers and eventually shipped across the globe to distribute to textile manufacturers to made into jackets, workwear apparels, shirts, and other forms of clothing.

What is a cashmere wool?

When browsing up CNN today, I stumbled on a topic about the increasing price of the cashmere wool. This made me formulate a question what is cashmere wool, where it come from, and why is it becoming expensive these days. So we begin tackling the first question we have here and well try to make a series of questions to be answered for just this topic.

What is a cashmere wool?

To answer this question we should first try to answer what is a cashmere? According to wikipedia, cashmere is a special breed of goat that produces a cashmere wool is grown in many countries particularly China. Today, cashmere is being bred anywhere for the purpose of culturing of the wool. Cashmere wool then is the fleece that these breed of goats produce and later processed to be used as apparels and other garments.

Here are the Characteristics of cashmere I grabbed from Wikepedia:

Cashmere is characterized by its soft fibers. It is noted as providing a natural light-weight insulation without bulk. Fibers are highly adaptable and are easily spun into fine or thick yarns, and light to heavy-weight fabrics. The original undyed or natural colors of cashmere wool are various shades of grey, brown and white.
In the United States, under the U.S. Wool Products Labeling Act of 1939, as amended, (U.S.C. 15 Section 68b(a)(6)), a textile product may not be labeled as containing cashmere if:

1. such wool product is not the fine (dehaired) undercoat fibers produced by a cashmere goat (Capra hircus laniger);

2. the average diameter of the fiber of such wool product exceeds 19 microns; or

3. such wool product contains more than 3 percent (by weight) of cashmere fibers with average diameters that exceed 30 microns.

The average fiber diameter may be subject to a coefficient of variation around the mean that shall not exceed 24 percent.