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Mongolia’s cashmere trade is at risk of imploding, New Lines Magazine reported.
After the USSR’s collapse, Mongolia opened to global markets, and small herders eschewed crop and livestock diversity in favor of raising goats for the booming cashmere market.
The country became the world’s second-largest producer after China, its output increasing sixfold over 30 years.
While relentless demand for the coveted fiber has raised herders’ quality of life, it’s also exposed them to greater precarity: Many are indebted, and one storm away from losing their herds.
The grazing of 22 million goats has ravaged pastures, 76% of which exhibit signs of desertification. “I feel abused by the price of cashmere,” one herder said. “It’s a job destined to become unsustainable.”