The cashmere

Presentation

Cashmere is the fine undercoat fibres produced by the cashmere goat bred in Asia (China, Mongolia, Iran, Afghanistan). This goat is protected against the deep cold by a heavy fleece composed from coarse guard hair (35-40 µ) and a fine undercoat (14-19 µ).

In some areas, the goats are combed to collect the down. In this case, the down and the hair are quite well sorted. In other countries, the goats are shorn and the fleeces are sorted by hand for coarse hair. Afterwards the fibre is scoured and dehaired in order to reduce the hair content as low as less than 3% (by weight).

The annual worldwide production is about 15-20.000 Tons of greasy cashmere i.e. about 6.500 T per year after scouring and dehairing.