Cashmere World 2013, the world’s only trade fair dedicated to cashmere and other fibres was held from September 25-27 at Hong Kong. Co-organized by the China Chamber of Commerce of Import & export of Foodstuffs, Native Produce and Animal by-Products and UBM Asia., the event runs concurrently with Fashion Access, an exhibition dedicated to head-to-toe fashions, enabling both fairs to benefit from each other’s synergy.
More than 60 exhibitors and 2,000 buyers visited the fair. Outsourcing as well as quality, marketing, supply chain and sustainability issues; the advent of new technologies and fashion trends were among the topics debated at the Cashmere World Forum that was held over two days which attracted cashmere industry’s experts and aficionados from all over the world.
There was a lot of buzz around the Afghan Made cashmere booth. Afghanistan is currently the third largest producer of cashmere in the world after China and Mongolia but due to lack of training and equipment, only 30 per cent of the country’s cashmere is currently harvested. Philip Eddleston, Cashmere Specialist and Advisor of AfghanMade, the label developed for and by the US task force project, predicted that Afghan Cashmere will come as an identified product by the end of 2014. Production from Afghanistan is hoped to alleviate the worrying global shortage of raw material, attributed to the reduction of grazing land and of animals raised for their fibres. Meanwhile, despite the much talked about decrease of competitiveness of China, the country is expected to remain the world’s main cashmere manufacturer for the years to come.
