Rome, May 2010, IADG

by Carol Kerven

Odessa Centre UK

and poor goat farmers in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan

Tests show that local Tajik and Kyrgyz goats in the

Pamir mountains produce fine quality cashmere

This high value commodity is sold by producers in

China and Mongolia

for $ 25-40 per kg

Goat keepers in the Pamirs

received $4.50 to $20 kg

between 2005-2009

Goats are sold for meat, kept

for milk and recently,

harvested for cashmere

Cattle, sheep and yaks are

mainly kept by richer villagers

Surveys find that the poorest

villagers mainly keep goats –

cheaper to buy, easier to manage

and reproduce faster

Cashmere moults in spring and is combed or shorn. Combed is more valuable

Local traders obtain cash from

Chinese processors and buy

from individual villagers

Road transport is difficult.

High capital and technical

inputs required for processing

50% of value is added after sorting

and dehairing (removing rough hair)

Spinning, weaving and knitting

into garments China, Mongolia, Italy, UK, Japan

and Korea are the main

manufacturers.

EACH PROCESSING STAGE ADDS

VALUE

Price 2009 One kg USD

Pamir goat farm 4.5

Local Tajik trader 6.3

Kyrgyz city Chinese 10-16

Dehaired in China 12-50

Wholesale in UK 50-100

Retail in sweater 450 – 4,500

FINER QUALITY COSTS MORE

In the Soviet period, other goat

breeds were introduced with low

quality cashmere

� Italy and Scotland make the most up-market cashmere items

� They require the finest and most expensive cashmere - $100/kg

� Retail price of a sweater is up to $1,200

� Superior quality cashmere is rare, mostly sourced in China, but found on some Pamiri goats in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan

�

� Cashmere from Pamiri goats is

sometimes too short for

commercial processing

� The harvest per goat is often

very low – less than 100 g.

Local breeds are a valuable genetic resource in the region, but at risk of being lost through interbreeding with introduced breeds

Over 20 percent of the world's livestock breeds are at risk of extinction, and in the past six years, sixty breeds have been lost (The State of the World's Report on AnGR: FAO).

We need to characterise local goat breeds, including:� Identifying locations of local breeds� Analyze DNA � Body size, growth rates and prolificacy� Analyze whole fibre, including cashmere� Compare indices with other local goat breeds in different

ecological zones of Central Asia

Once existing relict local breeds are located and characterised:

� Need to conserve local goat breeds with best quality

cashmere, prolificacy and meat/milk outputs

� Create nucleus research and breeding flocks of

the best indigenous goats

� Assess appropriate technology in production countries, e.g.

Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, for cashmere processing

� Assess potential new markets for high quality cashmere

� Create links between commercial buyers and village

production sources, to market high quality cashmere