PREMIUM ALPACA
17
Dec 2011 - Premium
Alpaca Group sells fibre in Fremantle through wool trader Primaries WA.
The auction of 21 alpaca bales at
the Fremantle wool stores occurred this Wednesday. The auction followed the
normal wool auction with all wool buyers in attendance. We are pleased
to advise that all the hard work put in by Premium Alpaca Group members
appears to be paying dividends.
Premium Alpaca SA offered
four bales of white huacaya fleece lines for sale.
While, passed in at auction, the following bales were
subsequently sold shortly after the auction for the following (GST incl) prices:
1 bale averaging 20.2 microns,
weighing 101 kilos = $20.35 per kg
1 bale averaging 22.2 microns, weighing 90 kilos = $15.40 per kg
1 bale averaging 23.6 microns, weighing 92 kilos = $12.10 per kg.
Alpaca Ultimate was the
successful purchaser of the three bales that sold, paying more than 10% over
their advertised price. Alpaca Ultimate made it clear that our fleece
handling protocols and attention to quality control were the key to their
sourcing of our bales and paying the price premium.
There is a fourth fleece bale
averaging 26.3 microns, another short fibre bale and a bale of skirtings
that Primaries are endeavouring to sell for the Premium Alpaca Group.
Other fleece bales from non
Premium Alpaca breeders offered for sale at the same Fremantle auction have
so far failed to find a buyer at this stage. Some of their skirting
and cast lines did sell with prices from $1.00 to $5.00 per kg. It is
therefore apparent that our Premium Alpaca product is appealing to buyers
and processors and will justify the hard work and attention to quality.
The Premium Alpaca Group had two
objectives for this sale. The first was to achieve as high a price as
possible. While the bales made about 10% more than the highest advertised
price for alpaca fibre, we were hoping for competition from China. It
appears the buyers from China do not have enough information on alpaca to
mount any genuine attempt to bid for the bales. We now have a few leads to
follow that will help in this regard. In fact Darryl Sherman who coordinates
the WA group, was approached by a buyer from China at the sale, to find out
more about our concept. Further, the successful bidder of the bales
has expressed a desire to buy more fibre from Premium Alpaca, with the
possibility of paying a further premium once they see the contents of the
purchased bales.
Our second objective was to
ensure the buyers of fibre noticed the standard of our product. This
objective was achieved with flying colours. At the auction, samples of
the bales were presented to buyers as is normal practise with wool sales.
A number of people at the auction paid compliments for the high standard of
presentation of the Premium Alpaca fleece lines. It was this recognition
that caused the buyer from China to ask Darryl for more details of the
Premium Alpaca concept and stated he wanted to talk further. Further
compliments were made by other alpaca breeders also in attendance at the
auction.
While there were strong
indicators that we are on the right step, there is much work to be done. In
particular, trying to get other breeders to be involved so that we might
offer the market commercially acceptable volumes of fleece lines. We also
need to develop demand for coloured fleeces and suri lines. There was
one bale of suri fleece offered for sale but there were bids and as of
Friday it had not been sold.
Greg Tillbrook from Primaries WA
indicated that another auction of alpaca fibre is likely to be held in
Fremantle early in 2012 subject to sufficient bales being delivered to their
warehouses across Australia for core testing and sampling.
23 May 2011 - Premium
Alpaca Group grows in WA.
We are pleased to announce that more studs in WA
have now joined the WA Premium Alpaca Group.
This follows another successful training workshop held at Encantador Alpaca
Stud. Participants took their fleece preparation, fibre harvesting and
skirting skills to a new level to enable them to present premium alpaca
fibre to the market. The group will come together late in 2011 to a
fibre
collection and training weekend.
