Chinese "Students" canvassing American Alpaca Farms (Vanity Post)

Vanity Post | September 30, 2012 | The Working Man

[rabidralph]

Hey, I never said anything about that. I’m talking strictly hugs!

[reformedliberal]

No longer accurate, IMO.

The fiber world has gone to alpaca in a big way. In my nearest small town, there is a HUGE alpaca fiber shop with such a large online business they have, within 5 years moved from an average-sized shop to a former 1/2 square block 2-story department store with a full basement. Carded batts, spun wool, felted sheets and finished goods comprise the line. It is very expensive and they cannot even keep up with the knitters, crocheters, spinners and weavers who want this fiber.

I think every farm in my area has a small herd and some have a large one. It was an investment scam, but now people have their marketing act together and I see an established and mature market. Evidently the Chinese do, too. I know of at least 2 local other businesses that only custom card and dye alpaca and are ordered to the walls. Subsidies come and go, but this is a market that has reached critical mass in both production supply and demand and it is inevitable that it will be taken over.

I have manufactured a wool felt sewing notion for 27 years. I have had American buyers for large chain operations attempt to reproduce my product and insult me by asking if it could be made in China when I won’t meet their onerous terms. I have had people hire away my workers to learn my production methods. This gushing approach is SOP. I saved my business because I have changed my production process multiple times to cut margins and kept certain aspects totally proprietary. I come across forums where others are attempting to figure out how my product is made. Since this is a commodity and not a process, Americans are going to face competition as everyone wants to get into a popular niche. An upside for the consumer will be cheaper fiber, but there may be a backlash if the fiber artists demand organic fiber.

The Chinese cashmere is awful. Thin and without the hand of cashmere as it once was. They will ruin alpaca the same way.
American producers must become known for top quality or they will be crushed.

[Zhang Fei]

This gushing approach is SOP. I saved my business because I have changed my production process multiple times to cut margins and kept certain aspects totally proprietary. I come across forums where others are attempting to figure out how my product is made.

My sense is that keeping trade secrets is the key to remaining competitive, given that patent applications simply give developing countries (like China or India) that don't respect patents a road map to your process. If it's good enough for KFC and Coca Cola...

[Gabz]

Thank you for your original post and the ensuing discussion. I have no knowledge or involvement in the Alpaca industries, except I have a good friend who has gotten very involved in the fiber end of it. I have been absolutely fascinated with her blog and facebook postings about it. She has been giving spinning demonstrations on various Alpaca farms and at fairs and shows here on the DelMarVa (Delaware and the Eastern shores of Maryland and Virginia) peninsula.

She is very interested in fiber quality and has spoken of differences. I’m going to pass a link to this discussion along to her and ask for her opinion, for my personal interest (she’s not a member here.)

[reformedliberal]

I investigated a patent years ago. All I could qualify for would be a *design patent*, worth whatever you are willing to pay to defend it in court. Also, the attorney bragged that he charged $500/hr and told me I could not supply my own drawings. I decided to forget it.

Besides proprietary processes, I have over the years developed modifications to the equipment that are probably the most valuable portion of the business, besides the current account base, were I ever to offer it for sale. When I am ready to get rid of it, I have thought of simply writing and selling a book on the process, equipment mods, etc.

Depends on whether or not TSHTF, I guess.

In the hand manufacturing, production craft world, you simply accept that everyone tries to knock off a success and that you must stay ahead of them. I cannot tell you how many *artists* have contacted me over the decades requesting my process. They seem to believe that because they are artists and I am simply a production crafter, I will hand over years of work for the heck of it. I take great comfort in the fact that the company that hired away my assistant in order to steal my process is no longer in business, per se. They were purchased multiple times as part of various catalog *empires*, the work was all outsourced to Pakistan and all that is left in the US is a tiny division of a huge conglomerate that simply retails a few outsourced or outright imported items. Too bad. So sad.