Presentation from the Livestock Inter-Agency Donor Group (IADG) Meeting 2010. 4-5 May 2010 Italy, Rome IFAD Headquarters. The event involved approximately 45 representatives from the international partner agencies to discuss critical needs for livestock development and research issues for the coming decade. [ Originally posted on http://www.cop-ppld.net/cop_knowledge_base ]

1. Rome, May 2010, IADG
by Carol Kerven
Odessa Centre UK

2. and poor goat farmers in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan

3. 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

4. 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

5. Local traders obtain cash from
Cashmere moults in spring Chinese processors and buy
and is combed or shorn. from individual villagers
Combed is more valuable

6. Road transport is difficult.
High capital and technical 50% of value is added after sorting
and dehairing (removing rough hair)
inputs required for processing

7. Spinning, weaving and knitting
into garments China, Mongolia, Italy, UK, Japan
and Korea are the main
manufacturers.

8. 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

9. In the Soviet period, other goat
breeds were introduced with low
FINER QUALITY COSTS MORE 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 Cashmere from Pamiri goats is
Superior quality cashmere is sometimes too short for
rare, mostly sourced in China, commercial processing
but found on some Pamiri goats
in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan The harvest per goat is often
very low – less than 100 g.

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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