Why Vicuña Wool Is So Expensive | So Expensive

meet the elusive pecunia whose wool is worth more than gold here in northern bolivia a single kilogram of this wool can sell for 370 dollars and once the product hits shelves in italy a coat made of vicuna wool can cost around 35 000 but herding communities in the abalo bamboo mountain range can only shear vicunas once every two years and while conservation efforts have ensured that bucunas thrive in their natural habitat this can mean danger for communities rounding up the wild herd so how are conservationists and local communities working together and why is the wool they produce so expensive vicuna wool is extremely fine compared to other furs the cunha wool density is measured in microns and adult fukunia produces wool that measures 13 microns compare that to alpaca wool at 22 to 24 microns or llama at around 30 microns this ultra fine fur is what makes vicuna wool the most expensive textile in the world but to produce fine wool like this the first step is capturing the herd [Music] the herding day begins with a traditional ceremony and then in comes the fleet m the community began preparing for this capture a month in advance in addition to monitoring the herd and tracking its movement they must build what's called a capture shoot this acts as a herding device to move the buccaneer toward a temporary enclosure once the properly grappled they can be sheared their fur must be at least two and a half centimeters long for collection in an effort to organize the herding and conservation of the vicuna a management board was created richard ponciano serves as the authority of his province embracing the herd of the cunhas is important because raising camellids like alpacas is an essential way of life here in bolivia estradion unlike alpacas the cunhas cannot be domesticated and they are much more difficult to come by but the good news is that the herd is growing as of 2019 the vicuna cow in apple obamba was over 12 000 and it is estimated to have grown another nine percent since then this is an astonishing number given that at one point there were only about 65 vacunias left in this region the vicunias in the apollo bumba integrated management natural area or anmi are now protected and the years in between shearing are entirely focused on conservation [Music] that's umber alberto a technical manager overseeing 18 different communities in the areas that cheer bucunas managers like umber make sure that communities are equipped to produce the best possible product therefore getting the best price for their yield umber and other technical managers make sure the communities are equipped with mechanical shearing tools before 2019 shearing was done with scissors and took much longer however there are still communities using scissors in the highlands where umber and his team can't carry their power generators no matter what they always try to send one trained cheerer out to each community this helps ensure the highest quality product and keeps pecunias and shearers safe for example after a checkup on their health the pecunias are released back into the wild bolivia offers three kinds of fiber mainly to european markets these are raw fiber cleaned fiber and pre-carting fiber pre-carding fiber increases the initial cost of the product by 25 this is a process that involves manually removing bristles from the fleece pre-cutting one to two fleeces takes a full day technology in bolivia umber hopes to see more industrialization of the vicuna wool industry in bolivia in the future for now this is the final stage many residents of apollo bumba will ever see more than 90 percent of this fiber is bound for italy where it will be spun into designer textiles at laurel piana emiliano but nearby artisans crafting garments out of ahuna wool would like to see more bucuna fiber stay local they purchase it at a national level with an invoice from the state this gets shared among at least 10 craftspeople who are only able to receive two or three kilograms per year for mary producing a sweater from vicuna fiber is the same amount of labor as producing an alpaca sweater but she can earn a lot more from selling bacunia products she says the state doesn't allow her enough raw material to make a significant profit selling vacuum to products to get enough material to meet demand some artisans turn to the black market foreign as for the bocconia garments she sells locally the product in bolivia is that's a far cry from the eleven thousand dollars that it costs to purchase a vacuna shawl from laurel piana but the vacuna industry is still growing in bolivia as more communities develop the skills and tools necessary to produce the fiber is you

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Keywords: Business Insider, Business News, So Expensive, Vicuna Wool

Id: xSFh0rsidPU

Length: 9min 44sec (584 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 12 2022