Mongolian cashmere fibre, hand-combed

Detailed study

Cashmere is the fine undercoat ('down') grown by goats adapted to cold desert winters; the traditional harvest method is hand-combing the goats during their spring moult rather than shearing, producing longer, cleaner down with less coarse-guard-hair contamination than sheared fibre.

Provenance & producer

Mongolia is the world's second-largest raw cashmere producer after China, supplying roughly 9,600 tonnes of raw cashmere annually, with Gobi-region herding households a core source of supply. Hand-combing remains the traditional Mongolian harvest method; only a minority of Mongolia's raw cashmere is processed into finished goods domestically, with the majority exported in semi-processed form.

Market & pricing

Global luxury fashion and knitwear demand is served largely through Italian and Chinese spinning mills that import Mongolian raw and semi-processed cashmere; prices are highly sensitive to Chinese demand cycles and to herd-size or weather shocks (harsh Mongolian winters, 'dzud' events, can sharply cut supply).

Compliance & export

No CITES restriction applies (domestic livestock fibre). A significant environmental concern is documented: cashmere goat overstocking is linked to Gobi grassland degradation and desertification, prompting industry sustainability responses such as the Sustainable Fibre Alliance's Good Cashmere Standard. Exports require Mongolian customs and animal-health certification.

Sources

• Wikipedia — Cashmere wool

Image status

A working reference photograph is in place, captured from a freely-licensed Wikimedia Commons source. Cashmere goats being hand-combed for their down in early spring, Mongolia, Taylor Weidman/The Vanishing Cultures Project, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons Treat this as a placeholder for marketing purposes: exact licence terms should be re-verified on the Commons file page, and original producer photography is recommended before final trade use.