How Much Fiber Do We Have In The United States?

American Alpaca Fiber Federation, LLC calculated that in both registered animals and non-registered fiber animals we have approximately 200,000 animals. We understand this is an estimate only, but it is our best educated guess. If each animal shears an average of 5 lbs of fleece then this nets approximately 450 Metric Tons.

Obviously, if demand for this new blended Alpaca Denim product is accepted worldwide then more fleece will be needed. This demand could cause our industry to grow exponentially…equating into more animals sold by each farm for more money.

Upon review with major textile mills, at this point several MAJOR paradigms have been broken regarding Alpaca fiber. A few of those misconceptions are as follows:

1.         Alpaca Fiber needs to be 4”-6” in length for commercial purposes.

This is not true. For commercial textile processing, they prefer the length to be no longer than 1.5” in length. This of course is great for our Alpaca owners, for it allows us to see a much better price for neck and leg fiber, not just the blanket. This also gives the American market much more fiber to sell than when utilizing primarily just the blanket.

2.         Alpaca Fiber must be highly crimped for commercial purposes.

This is not true. Textile mills have the ability to artificially put the desired crimp into the fiber being blended. An example is how they put crimp into synthetic fiber. Again, this is excellent for Alpaca breeders, for it allows us to sell and utilize practically all our Alpacas and not just the high crimp ones.