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How to buy alpaca products directly from Peru Peruvians know very well how to manage, keep, produce, and get the best from their national treasure: alpaca fiber. the animals are seen as a whole and the fiber is just one of the good things that alpaca give to their owners. The peruvian artesans dont use sofisticated scanners to measure the fiber. Furthermore, the multimillion dollar factories located on perú produce the alpaca yarns using local people. They have developed skills to clasify the fiber according to what has been a tradition during centuries: hand work done by groups of highly trained and specialized women. Small producers do the same process: hand labor and knowledge that comes from centuries. This is not a pretty sentence, it just reflex the knowledge of the peruvians in relation to their alpaca herds and alpaca products.Peru has around 4 millions of alpacas, The whole north america has around only 60,000 alpacas. If you want to do business producing your own alpaca fiber products or buying and distributing alpaca products, Peru is a place to see for getting all your needs on alpaca yarns and alpaca products. Peru produce fiber for export. Peruvian alpaca fiber is finer than other alpaca fibers produced around the world. The reason is the kind of grazing: low in proteins. Peruvian alpacas got this special kind of food in natural fields at more than 3,500 meters of altitude. This makes its fiber finer in a natural way (dont think this animals are starving, they have plenty of fields with the low protein grass call "ichu". Peruvians have domesticated the alpaca centuries ago and it was used by the noble inca lord and his family. It is a luxury item. From 1850 the export of alpaca fiber start to europe and the rest of the world. Exporting alpaca fiber and products is a traditional peruvian business. Alpaca breeding, getting the fiber and production of yarns and fabrics made of this special fiber is a multimillion dollar business all around peru, more than 500,000 peruvian families live about the alpaca and their products. How many different kinds of alpaca fiber ?Fiber can be named in many ways, but is a good start if you keep in mind the next about what is finer. Finer the fiber, more expensive the price. Microns is the measurement scale.
Alpaca fiber come in yarns in many different styles:
How many natural colors?The alpaca animal has 28 different natural colors. It is the only animal that produce wool in so many colors. and those 28 have more than 200 variations and tonalities. So, for this ecological times, this high rate of color gives anyone an important business opportunity: the items that you will sell can be of natural colors, not dyied. Very good for the people who is allergic or have asthma problems due to chemical substances used during the dying. Very good for the enviroment conscious consumer. If you choose to use dyed fiber, the colors are infinite, and the price at the local cost is just $1.- of difference for 1 kilo of yarn, or $0.50 dollars of difference in a small sweater. dying is your choice and it is not expensive. How much is the cost for alpaca products?Other thing is to know how much weight has a particular item. more heavy means more yarn and means a warmer item and means more price at the local production point. take in count that your peruvian production cost will be about 20% of the final public cost. A 40% will be on your local (import) operation. If you manage to have your local costs at a low level and the peruvian producer can manage to keep his/her local cost at the low level that it is... then you have a very huge opportunity to do bussiness with alpaca products imported directly from perú. Recently peruvian and united states goverments have got an agreement called the ATPDA. All alpaca items and other natural products from peru (like cotton) comes to the USA without import tax. This is a good advantage to develop the USA market for alpaca products and not only live animals for breeding. These agreement will accelerate the knowledge of the american people of the quality of alpaca fiber and the need of alpaca sweaters, jackets, and accesories will increase. The yarns must be bought according with the products (sweaters, scarfs, gloves, socks), according with the machines that the specific artesan (producer/manufacturer) have, and according of the type of mix of the fiber (pure or mixed). The hand labor involved on the develop of the product will have impact over the final price of the sweater, coat, scarf or gloves. More difficult design, more colors involved, more change of colors during the knitting process will finish in a higher price. That is what is call special design. Normally these special designs are done by hand labor, everything can be done but it has a price. Why buying alpaca items from peru?Let me tell you that I am not american and I do my best trying to speak in a language that is not my native language. I am peruvian and I am proud of my heritage and I know very well how international bussiness develop. I am a believer and I believe that USA and peru have a terrific opportunity to do bussiness because they are intended for the same: develop and alpaca market in the next years. Why buy alpaca items from peru? Because there is not enough alpaca fiber in the USA to manufacture the sweaters, socks and gloves that the USA market needs. Get a quotation from a peruvian company, get some samples, and see what is the final price for that item in the USA market or in your local arena. You will get amazed that even the most complicated design sweaters, the finest, with the higher price in peru, will be very, very good price for USA market. USA have a market for alpaca products and there is enough alpaca manufacturers in peru to produce what you need. many alpaca companies, like the cooperative that buys fiber from american alpaca breeders, buy sweaters made in peru. They dont have enough fiber of alpaca sweaters made in the USA. Check their website and you will see. Other USA companies do the same. There is not enough production of alpaca fiber in the USA and there is a market for alpaca products. You take a decision to advance in your plans and build your own alpaca products market: you help to develop the whole market but at the same time you start to develop your own private market for your own alpaca products (lets talk about your brand name, your local stores, your area of influence, your special designs, your special mix of fibers, your... you will develop your own alpaca products, under your own name! and you will help your whole alpaca business! (because breeding is just the start of your bussiness, isn't it ?) Where to go in peru?Lima, the peruvian capital city, is a good place to get alpaca items. Best place is the peruvian city of Juliaca-Puno at 2 hours by plane from lima. If you are thinking in artesanal items and you want to get connected to the spirit and versality of items that are produced you must go to puno. But if you want to do things easier the best way to get the fiber, quality, models and good price is to get a connection with a local representative that can help you to get what you want at the right price. When you visit Lima Peru you must visit some specialized and very fine stores that sell pure 100% baby alpaca sweaters with special design for about us$100.- (unit price, the same sweater is sold in the USA in many places on prices over the us$300.-) and local artesans producers that can sell a standard traditional plain alpaca sweater (50/50 alpaca/sintetic) for about us$10.- (ten!) dollars (wholesale price, plain design, mixed alpaca fiber with acrilic fiber). Betwen this extremes there is plenty of options. Regular price for an alpaca sweater for export (wholesale) should be around the us$45.- depending on the model, the quality of the fiber and the labor hand to manufactur the sweater. There is a market for everyone. All starts with the pureness of the fiber that you want to use.
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