“Baby camel down” a pilot project implemented by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation’s Green Gold Project has demonstrated that combing baby camels’ wool renders it as high a quality as goat cashmere, giving herders in Mongolia’s Gobi region a new opportunity to increase their incomes and providing processors with access to new raw materials.  

    According to an analysis report from the Mongolian Textile Institute, the average micron measurement of combed baby camels’ wool is 15.5mkm, with a length of 40mm and coarse hair content less than 1 percent, which is equal to that of goat cashmere. In addition, the average yield after primary processing is 52 percent and the spinning yield is 92 percent, meaning the total combed baby camels’ wool yield is 10 percent higher than sheared camel wool. 

    At present, the price per kilogram of processed adult camel dehaired hair is 4.7 times less than goat cashmere on the world market, and baby camels’ wool 2.4 times. 

    The best time for combing is in early spring. When combing baby camels, the coarse hair remains on the skin and only the soft down is removed, hence the hair content is lower and the output is higher. 

    Since thousands of years Mongolia’s nomadic herders have built up the resilience of camels to the harsh environmental conditions of the Gobi Desert. This has resulted in various indigenous camel breeds, which are embodying the best qualities of Mongolian two-humped Bactrian camels.

    Following a series training in 2015 on how to prepare and sort combed baby camels’ wool, camel herders from Govi-Altai and Bayankhongor aimags prepared 1200 kg of premium-quality combed wool harvested from two famous local breeds, the Dukhun Tungalag brown camel native to Govi-Altai aimag and the Lamyn Gegeen red camel from Bayankhongor aimag.

Premiere show and sales event of garments and accessories made from combed baby camel down will be organized on 30 September, 2015 at Urguu hall of Chinggis Hotel. 

    The products are made from combed down of one-year-old foals of specific indigenous camel breeds from selected districts of Gobi-Altai and Bayankhongor province in the Gobi region of Mongolia. 

    The down of baby camels, which graze on the Gobi rangelands, is shaped by the extreme climatic conditions of very cold winters and hot summers. It is durable and fluffy, comes in three natural color shades (beige, light brown, brown) and results in extraordinarily soft products that retain heat.            

                                                          

    Baby camel down is not sheared but carefully combed by the herder families without any harm for the animals. It is collected and sorted by local cooperatives and then cautiously processed by experienced domestic manufacturers into delicate garments and accessories. 

    In purchasing this product, you are contributing to the sustainable income of herder families, to the continued existence of Bactrian camel herds as well as to maintaining the integrity of the Gobi rangelands.

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