Cashmere is becoming common

For sure, everybody is in love with the so-called “diamond fibre”. It’s luxurious and fashionable, and at the same time it is known for a lot of great practical features: It is long lasting, it doesn’t wrinkle and offers great insulation, whether in summer or in winter time.

The love for the luxurious fashion material Cashmere is growing. Worldwide, the demand for cashmere products is increasing immensely, more than that: The cashmere knitwear market is definitely outgrowing the luxury apparel market. In the recent years you could see a “democratisation” of the fashion industry: Formerly high-priced textile fibers got more and more affordable for many consumers. Also cashmere knitwear, once highly expensive, has transformed to a casual product, offered by H&M and other retailers in a non-luxury segment.

To tackle the rising demand, accordingly more cashmere goats must get bred. In Mongolia the livestock population grew from approximately 23 million to 44 million in the last years. In contrary to raw materials like cotton, silk, or leather that can be produced in modified farming systems, cashmere production relies on natural grasslands in limited geographies. Here, the cashmere industry is getting affected by the consequences of global warming. As one of the main regions of cashmere wool production and a fragile dry-land already, Mongolia is suffering an increasing drought. The combination of both is creating a vicious cycle: More goats mean more grazing, which, in turn, leads to degradation of the grasslands.