Quality
Good quality alpaca fiber is approximately 18 to 25 micrometers in diameter. While breeders report fiber can sell for US$2 to 4 per ounce, the world wholesale price for processed, spun alpaca “tops” is only between about $10 to $24/kg (according to quality), i.e. about $0.28 to $0.68 per oz. Finer fleeces, ones with a smaller diameter, are preferred, so are more expensive. As an alpaca gets older, the diameter of the fibers gets thicker, between 1 µm and 5 µm per year. This is sometimes caused by overfeeding; as excess nutrients are converted to (thicker) fiber rather than to fat.
Elite alpaca breeders in the United States are attempting to breed animals with fleece that does not degrade in quality as the animals age. They are looking for lingering fineness (fiber diameters remaining under 20 micrometers) for aging animals. It is believed this lingering fineness is heritable and thus can be improved more and more over time.
As with all fleece-producing animals, quality varies from animal to animal, and some alpacas produce fiber which is less than ideal. Fiber and conformation are the two most important factors in determining an alpaca's value.
Alpacas come in 22 natural colors, with more than 300 shades from a true-blue black through browns-black, browns, fawns, white, silver-greys, and rose-greys. However, white is predominant, because of selective breeding: the white fiber can be dyed in the largest ranges of colors. In South America, the preference is for white, as they generally have better fleece than the darker-colored animals. The demand for darker fiber sprung up in the United States and elsewhere, though, to reintroduce the colors, but the quality of the darker fiber has decreased slightly. Breeders have been diligently working on breeding dark animals with exceptional fiber, and much progress has been made over the last few years.
Read more about this topic: Alpaca Fiber
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