KEY POINTS:
From ginseng to ostrich farming, the primary sector has a long history of trying new ways to make a dollar. In the last of a series, agriculture editor Stephen Ward looks at alpacas
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They're expensive - but cute and spreading.
Alpacas - originally from South America - are popular with lifestyle block owners, meaning a solid market for the animals, whose fibre is used for clothing.
But even though the fibre can fetch up to $100/kg for the best quality, the clip is almost seen as a "by-product", with the demand for them as pets, show animals and breeding stock being what keeps their price up.
In 2001, a Lincoln University report for the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry estimated there were about 1300 alpacas in New Zealand.
Now there were about 8000 alpacas worth around $50 million in total, said Alpaca Association president Russell Nelson, who runs 130 of the animals near Ashburton.
Those figures mean each animal is, on average, worth more than $6000.
The association said lesser-quality breeding females sold from $3000 up, while expensive well-bred or imported females could go for $15,000-$20,000. Top-quality stud males from Australia have been imported for more than A$100,000 ($113,000). Straight pets could cost $500-$1000, said Nelson.
The association's prices compare with the MAF report's indicative prices for 2001 of $15,000-$25,000 for premium-quality award-winning stock, and $3000-$10,000 for stud-quality males.
Nelson said prices remained high because international demand for the animals exceeded supply and it cost up to $30,000 to get an animal out of South America - which has foot and mouth disease. He said two New Zealand investors had recently spent about $2 million and $1 million respectively on alpacas for farming.
The first lot of alpacas imported into New Zealand came in the mid-1980s. Many were brought in later, often for re-export. But the sharemarket crash in 1987 hurt the developing industry, with one company going under. New Zealand-based animals were sold off all over the world.
Then, from the late 1980s, four larger shipments came in from Chile. MAF, which was researching alpaca farming, took some of the animals.
Around that time, said Nelson, there were about a dozen alpaca farmers. Now the association had around 650 member farms.
The Agribusiness Group's Sue Cumberworth - who has organised an association and state-funded project to spread alpaca farming information - said the animals had proved popular with a wide cross-section of New Zealanders. "Some people, I think, have probably never had a goldfish before and they get alpacas."
Most owners were lifestyle-block dwellers or those breeding alpacas for sale, she said.
She said people could be attracted to the animals very easily.
"They just like the idea of them. Some of them [see] money to be made but an awful lot of them go to shows and see them, take a look at them and that's it - for many it's quite an emotive decision initially."
Prices were well-supported and "if anything, they're going up", Cumberworth said.
"It's a straight supply and demand situation and people want them, and some of the people selling are doing a lot of importing ... that sort of pegs the bottom price for an alpaca at around $5000, probably, for a breeding female."
Nelson said only a few operations would have more than 200 animals, with the average being 12-14.
He said the animals suited lifestyle-block owners "because they're reasonably easy-care".
Top animals would produce more than 6kg of fibre a year, but that would give a return of only $300-$400 an animal, showing clearly that the prices paid for alpacas are not really linked to their fibre production.
However, fibre sales can help offset the costs of owning the animals.
All New Zealand-produced fibre goes into the domestic market, with no centralised collection and marketing.
Nelson said demand for live animals outstripped supply internationally and industry sources said there was a small but growing export trade in live animals.
Chris Leach, the managing director of New Zealand Alpacas, near Cambridge, said he believed no more than 200 were exported each year. Industry sales had been made in Australia, England and Europe, while his firm was looking at selling to Asia. He said the disease-free status of New Zealand animals could help local suppliers get more of the live trade.
Meanwhile, the 2001 report for MAF contained a warning that alpaca prices must eventually decline once demand for the animals was satisfied, and prices started to reflect the animals' fibre-producing ability, rather than the value of "rare" genetic stock.
