Since the middle of April, the national cashmere enterprises have started the work of collecting and preparing cashmere in spring, and the pastures have shown a busy scene of work, which will make a good start for the new year's cashmere production.
Under the new development conditions, how to speed up the construction of the modern wool industry system and promote the high-quality development of the industry has become an urgent question for the wool industry.
Strong demand of cashmere industry
What is fluff? In the Textile Dictionary published by China Textile Press in 2007, the definition of wool is: fine, unmyelinated or containing a small amount of medulla. It usually refers to sheep hair with a diameter of less than 30 microns, cashmere with a diameter of less than 25 microns, camel hair with a diameter of less than 40 microns, yak hair with a diameter of less than 35 microns, etc.
There are four kinds of fluff fibers included in the definition of fluff, and the cashmere industry developed earlier. In the 1950s, China actively carried out cashmere goat resource survey and breeding improvement, and cultivated a large number of excellent cashmere products enterprises such as Ordos. At present, from breeding to textile processing, they have reached the world's leading level.
At the 30th National Wool Conference held recently, the 2024 China (Nangong) Fine Cashmere and Animal Fiber Industry High Quality Development Exchange Conference, and the 9th China Wool Industry Development Summit, Feng Jianfang, president of the China Livestock Products Circulation Association and full-time deputy secretary of China Agricultural Means of Production Group, said that in the context of current global sustainable development, The cashmere industry has a strong market demand and has become an important part of the animal fiber industry. It is preliminarily estimated that the global cashmere clothing market will reach 23.52 billion yuan in 2023. China is the world's largest producer and marketer of cashmere, and the processing quantity, production capacity and export volume of cashmere and its products rank first in the world.
Across the country, the cashmere industry is booming in many places. Ordos, the "warm city", has long been an important pole in the map of China's cashmere industry. Ordos has made great efforts in industrial agglomeration, brand cultivation and other aspects, excavated greater potential of traditional competitive industries, listed cashmere industry in the city's "four world-class industries", and moved towards the "world cashmere city" with the largest scale, the most perfect technical system, and the strongest brand competitiveness.
Yulin City, Shaanxi Province, around the theme of high-quality development, actively creates a cashmere industry innovation highland in the western region. The local government has put forward the development requirements of building cashmere and wool light textile industry with all efforts, and will focus on brand operation, technology research and development, industrial sales and seizing the new track, so as to ensure the sustainable development of Yulin cashmere and wool industry.
Innovation and brand are key
Recently, the 2023 Alpas Cashmere Premium Award and Reward Conference in Ordos and the 2024 Cashmere Premium Collection and Storage Launching Ceremony were held in Otok Banner. At the meeting, it was read out and commended the demonstration households with cashmere high quality and good price of more than 80000 yuan, 30000 yuan and 10000 yuan in 2023. The demonstration households could receive rewards and subsidies of up to 200000 yuan, with a total subsidy of 4.89 million yuan.
High quality and high price contribute to the healthy, rapid and sustainable development of the industry. After the fluff industry has gone through the initial stage, with the development of the industry, if we do not seek higher added value of products through technology improvement and brand building, the development will be slow. Gao Lizhong, deputy general manager of the cashmere spinning business department and director of the technical center of Ordos Resources Co., Ltd., said that in order to meet the young people's demand for practicality and convenience of domestic products, the products have strengthened the washability of cashmere. Cashmere that could only be dry cleaned in the past can now be washed. Last year, 200000 pieces of machine washable cashmere products were promoted.
Technological innovation is the key to the future of natural fiber. Zheng Wenxin, the chief scientist of the national wool sheep industry technology system, said that a new round of scientific and technological revolution has developed in depth, and material science and technology occupy the forefront. New fiber materials characterized by high performance, multi-function, lightweight, and flexibility will have an impact on traditional natural fibers. At the same time, the new generation of digital informatization intelligent technology is deeply integrated with the textile industry to promote the iteration of the textile industry chain.
"Enterprises in all links of the industrial chain should promote the harmonious development of the industry through scientific and technological innovation." Zheng Wenxin proposed that enterprises should pay attention to the technological innovation of the whole industrial chain and the improvement of the industrial technology system, strengthen the upstream and downstream cooperation of the industrial chain, and industry researchers should continue to develop accurate feeding, low-cost and efficient hair and lint removal technology to help enterprises save costs and increase efficiency. In addition, rapid detection technology is also the key to improving product quality, and the development of digital and Internet technology should be accelerated in the breeding process to improve efficiency.
Only when enterprises develop healthily and stably can the industry realize optimization and upgrading. According to the data of Tianyancha Professional Edition, up to now, China has more than 16000 enterprises related to the wool industry. However, from the perspective of brand, the "Leader" Ordos Cashmere Group has outstanding advantages, but most enterprises in the industry are still raw material suppliers, foundries and brand factories, which are closer to the upstream in the industrial chain and earn relatively small profits. Compared with developed countries such as Europe, China still lacks the pricing voice and the ability to occupy a dominant position in the high-end cashmere product market.
The brand building path of Ordos Group may be difficult to copy directly, but for a wider range of fluff enterprises, it has become the consensus in the industry to find a suitable brand path based on their own characteristics. For example, the way to improve the design level, promote cashmere cultural and creative products, expand social network platform channels, and increase brand cultural connotation has achieved results in practice.
Industrial clusters should also actively promote brand cultivation. Rongdu Town, built in Dongsheng District, Ordos, has a pedestrian street with cashmere culture as the theme, and is also the first cashmere industry consortium in the city. By integrating enterprise resources, human resources, financial resources, and equipment, and relying on industrial clusters, it has established regional public brands and product brands.
The journey of brand building is long and full of uncertainty. However, with the deepening of brand awareness in the wool industry, all forces have converged on brand building, and it is believed that more "golden signboards" of Chinese wool brands will be established in the future.
Green intelligent manufacturing leads the trend
In the workshop of Erdos Group No. 2 Knitting Factory, located in Hantai Town, Dongsheng District, Erdos City, rows of computerized flat knitting machines are running automatically, the production line is in order, the production has been automated, and the employee income has also increased significantly; In the adjacent No. 1 Knitting Factory, the application of full molding equipment has realized the intellectualization of textile production.
Wang Yueping, a professor of the School of Material Design and Engineering of Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology, believes that enterprises should pay attention to the automation, data and intelligence of plush product processing in order to create a sustainable clothing and fashion design industry chain, increase the development of plush fashion products, and improve the added value of the industry.
At the same time, the sustainability of cashmere and the transparency of the supply chain have always been the focus and hot topic of fashion frontier consumers.
In April 2024, Ordos Group passed the ecological textile certification of the International Textile and Leather Ecological Research and Testing Association ("OEKO-TEX") again. So far, the Group has successfully renewed the certificate for 24 consecutive years. The textiles certified by OEKO-TEX do not contain harmful substances and are friendly to human health and the environment. Ordos Group, through the sustainable green practice of the whole cashmere industry chain, leads the industry to take the road of green and high-quality development, and adheres to green intelligent manufacturing and new quality improvement.
"Green, environmental protection, ecology and sustainable development have become important fashion concepts. Enterprises should pay attention to the whole life cycle and the whole industrial chain of plush products." Hua Shan, director of China Textile Economic Research Center, pointed out that new quality productivity is scientific and technological productivity, cultural productivity, and green productivity. Enterprises should pay attention to the integration and innovation of new fiber materials, artificial intelligence, and advanced manufacturing; Attention should be paid to digital help fashion creative design, accurate fashion access channels, and expand fashion integration experience; Green development should be integrated into the industrial chain and supply chain, and the external resources of the industrial chain should be coordinated to promote low-carbon and circular tasks.
With the development of the global economy and the improvement of living standards, cashmere products are gradually becoming more and more popular, and the consumption demand is expanding year by year. Especially in the fashion field, the cashmere clothing market is expanding, providing a broad market space for the development of China's cashmere industry. (Economic Daily/Liu Jin)
